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BR    121    .C53    1899 

Clarke,  William  Newton,  184 

-1912. 
What  shall  we  think  of 


WHAT   SHALL  WE   THINK 
OF  CHRISTIANITY? 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  THINK 
OF  CHRISTIANITY? 

THE    LEVERING    LECTURES    BEFORE    THE 

JOHNS  HOPKINS    UNIVERSITY 

1899 


By  WILLIAM  NEWTON  CLARKE,  D.D. 

Author  of 
'*AN  OUTLINE  OF   CHKISTIAN  THEOLOGY." 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
NEW   YORK 1899 


CojyyrigJd,  1S99, 
By  Charles  Sckibner's  Sons. 


THIRD    EDITION. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Camukidge,  U.S.A. 


2r?)ese  noctures, 


NOW    PUBLISHED   A8    TIIEY   WERE    DELIVERED, 

ARE    DEDICATED,    IN    GRATEFUL    REMEMBRANCE, 

TO 

MR.   EUGENE    LEVERING, 

The  Founder  of  the   Course, 

AND 

TO    THE     DELIGHTFUL    AUDIENCES    THAT     LISTENED 

TO   THEM. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
I.    The  Christian  People 1 

II.    The  Christian  Doctrine      ....    48 

III.    The  Christian  Power 98 


The  sower  went  forth  to  sow  his  seed: 
and  as  he  sowed,  some  fell  by  the  way  side  ; 
and  it  tuas  trodden  under  foot,  and  the  birds 
of  the  heaven  devoured  it.  Afid  other  fell 
on  the  rock;  and  as  soon  as  it  grew,  it 
withered  away,  because  it  had  no  moisture. 
And  other  fell  amidst  the  thorns  ;  and  the 
thorns  grew  with  it,  and  choked  it.  And 
other  fell  i?ito  the  good  ground,  and  grezu^ 
and  brought  forth  fruit  a  htcndredfold.  He 
that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear. 

So  is  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  if  a  man 
shotild  cast  seed  upon  the  earth  ;  a?id  should 
sleep  and  rise  flight  and  day,  and  the  seed 
should  spring  up  and  grow,  he  knozueth  not 
how.  The  earth  beareth  fruit  of  herself; 
first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear. 


WHAT    SHALL   WE    THINK 
OF    CHEISTIANITY? 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PEOPLE 

I  AM  heartily  glad  to  speak,  in  this 
presence,  of  the  things  that  occupy  my 
thoughts  and  make  my  life,  and  to  speak 
with  the  utmost  freedom.  I  shall  be  glad 
if  what  I  may  say  fulfils  in  some  degree 
the  apologetic  purpose  of  this  lectureship, 
by  making  some  Christian  realities  in 
which  I  believe  more  clear  and  more  help- 
ful to  some  who  listen.  I  believe  in  the 
greatness  and  worth  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
I  have  some  sense  of  the  preciousness  of 
his  gifts  to  mankind :  and  I  propose  that 
in  these  three  lectures  we  look  together  at 
three  great  contributions  that  he  has  made 

to  the  moral  wealth  and  welfare   of  hu- 
1 


/ 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


manity.  These  contributions  are  the 
Christian  People,  the  Christian  Doctrine, 
and  the  Christian  Power. 

My  reason  for  selecting  these  three  gifts 
of  Christ  for  consideration  is,  that  these 
three  go  far  toward  making  up  that  great 
fact  in  history  and  life  which  we  call 
Christianity.  When  Jesus,  the  founder  of 
Christianity,  left  the  world,  what  did  he 
leave  beliind  him  that  he  did  not  find 
here?  What  elements  had  he  added  to 
the  life  of  mankind,  and  brought  in  as  his 
contribution  to  the  future?  He  left  in 
the  world,  at  least  in  vigorous  and  prom- 
ising beginnings,  a  people,  a  doctrine,  and 
a  power :  —  a  people,  few  but  attentive 
and  receptive;  a  doctrine,  growing  into 
fulness  and  vitality  tlirough  their  experi- 
ence ;  and  a  power,  already  operative  and 
of  boundless  potency.  These  combined 
bequests  of  his  had  at  first  no  common 
name.     At  first  their  unity  could  not  be 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


clearly  discerned.  Nevertheless,  he  had 
left  a  unity  in  the  world,  not  a  mere 
sprinkling  of  detached  results,  and  in  due 
time  the  unity  asserted  itself.  After  a 
little  his  disciples  were  named,  and  proba- 
bly nicknamed.  Christians.  The  nick- 
name stayed  upon  them,  and  came  to  be 
their  chosen  name  for  whatsoever  belonged 
to  them  in  relation  to  their  Master.  In 
the  name  they  gloried,  for  it  denoted  that 
new  something,  unlike  the  possessions  of 
mankind,  yet  normal  and  suitable  to  man, 
which  Jesus  had  brought  in.  Their  church 
was  soon  the  Christian  church,  and  their 
doctrine  the  Christian  doctrine ;  and  the 
unified  result  of  Jesus'  presence  among 
men  came  by  and  by  to  be  known  as 
Christianity.  Both  the  name  and  the  fact 
have  continued  until  now.  If  we  seek  to 
know  what  Christianity  is,  and  of  what 
elements  it  is  composed,  how  can  we  de- 
scribe it  better  than  by  saying  that  it  is 
made  up  of  these  three  elements,  the  peo- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


pie,  the  doctrine,  and  the  power  that  Jesus 
left  in  the  world  as  his  abiding  gift  to 
man?  If  we  find  more  than  these,  we 
shall  find  it,  I  judge,  mainly  by  unfolding 
what  these  contain.  In  every  age  these 
three  constitute,  or  at  least  efficiently 
represent,  what  we  call  Christianity.  By 
means  of  these  the  Christian  name  has 
been  kept  alive  among  men,  and  the  Chris- 
tian influence  has  been  exerted. 

I  wish  to  inquire  how  well  these  gifts 
of  Cln-ist,  these  elements  of  Christianity, 
have  done  their  work,  and  of  how  much 
attention  they  are  really  worthy  now, 
after  so  long  a  time.  They  all  stand  for 
the  holy  and  beneficent  name  of  Jesus, 
and  are  supposed  to  convey  to  us,  each  in 
its  own  manner,  the  gift  and  influence  that 
he  brought.  All  ought  to  bear  a  decided 
apologetic  value.  Such  a  value  they  are 
universally  expected  to  show.  It  is  as- 
sumed that  tlie  Christian  people  fairly 
represent  the  human  fruit  that  the  Saviour 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  5 

of  men  intended  to  produce,  that  the 
Christian  doctrine  fairly  expresses  what 
the  Master  meant  to  teach,  and  that  the 
Cliristian  power  is  such  as  the  Lord  of 
men  is  satisfied  to  be  exerting.  These 
gifts  of  Christ  are  such  that  in  the  light  of 
them  Christ  himself  can  scarcely  fail  to  be 
judged.  Of  this  we  cannot  complain,  nor 
can  we  imagine  that  he  himself  would 
make  objection.  He  who  said  of  men, 
"  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,'* 
will  not  refuse  to  submit  to  a  fair  use  of 
the  test  that  he  has  proposed  for  others. 
Christianity  may  reasonably  be  estimated 
in  view  of  these  its  constituent  elements, 
if  only  we  can  manage  to  do  the  judging 
fairly. 

Yet  how  various  the  judgments  are! 
and  we  cannot  wonder.  Some  say  that 
the  Cliristian  enterprise  is  the  one  success- 
ful thing  in  all  the  world :  the  people  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth,  the  doctrine  is  the 
light  of  the  world,  and  the  power  is  God's 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


own  power  for  salvation.  Others  say  that 
these  fruits  are  no  special  credit  to  him 
whose  name  they  bear:  long  time  and 
little  done,  poor  fruit  and  little  of  it,  all 
sorts  of  imperfections  in  the  people,  incon- 
sistencies and  irrationalities  infesting  the 
doctrine,  great  unevenness  in  the  operation 
of  the  power.  All  the  way  between  these 
two  extremes  the  judgments  range.  We 
are  living  now  in  an  atmosphere  that  is 
rife  with  criticism:  for  there  are  many 
who  sincerely  think  that  Christianity  has 
been  tried  in  the  balances  and  found  want- 
ing, and  is  justly  condemned  by  its  failure 
to  produce  a  people,  a  doctrine,  or  a  power 
proportioned  in  excellence  to  its  claims. 

In  what  I  may  have  the  honor  to  say  in 
this  presence,  I  desire  to  show,  if  possible, 
what  is  true  about  these  three  gifts  of 
Christ  which  constitute  our  Christianity. 
I  wish  to  look  at  them  fairly,  if  I  can. 
I  am  not  here  to  defend  what  bears  the 
name  of  Christian  merely  because  it  bears 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


that  name,  nor  am  I  here  to  surrender 
what  is  precious  because  it  is  not  perfect. 
I  shall  inquire  what  can  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected of  these  gifts  in  the  world,  and 
how  well  they  are  fulfilling  rational  ex- 
pectations. I  shall  note  some  of  the  con- 
ditions attendant  upon  the  rise,  growth, 
and  continuance  of  these  three  elements 
of  Christianity,  in  order  that  we  may 
judge,  with  some  fairness,  how  well  they 
have  done  their  work  and  realized  the 
aims  of  Christ.  Thus  I  shall  try  to  as- 
certain what  we  ought  to  think  of  Chris- 
tianity. And  perhaps  we  may  discern 
something  of  the  winning  and  convincing 
beauty  of  the  Lord  in  these  his  gifts. 

In  the  present  hour  we  consider  the 
Christian  People. 

There  is  no  mystery  about  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  people.  Jesus  left  in  the 
world  the  little  band  of  believers  in  him- 


8  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

self  that  had  gathered  around  him  in  his 
ministry.  They  were  disciples  learning 
of  him,  and  some  of  them  were  already 
named  apostles,  messengers,  or  heralds. 
We  read  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  above  five  hundred,  perhaps  in 
Galilee.  Very  soon  the  hundreds  became 
thousands.  Out  from  Palestine  his  name 
went  to  the  Roman  world,  and  in  Antioch, 
Asia  Minor,  Greece,  and  Rome  itself,  mul- 
titudes were  added  to  the  Christian  com- 
pany. By  the  time  that  Jesus,  if  he  had 
lived,  would  have  attained  to  the  age  of 
three-score  years  and  ten,  the  Roman 
empire  was  dotted  over  with  Christian 
churches,  and  a  people  devoted  to  his 
Name  was  everywhere. 

Who  were  they,  and  what  ?  What  prin- 
ciples were  operative  in  the  formation  of 
the  Christian  people  ?  How  came  it  to  be 
what  it  was  ?  I  shall  be  glad  if  I  can  set 
forth  and  illustrate  the  simple  and  com- 
monplace fact  tliat  the  normal  and  neces- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


sary  laws  of  life  had  their  way  here. 
Christianity,  placed  in  the  world,  experi- 
enced the  inevitable,  and  took  the  con- 
sequences of  existence.  The  Christian 
people,  first  and  later,  was  such  as  it 
could  he. 

The  Founder,  as  we  know,  drew  his  first 
followers  from  among  the  Jews.  Not  from 
the  circle  of  the  high  religionists  did  they 
come,  but  from  that  better  circle  which 
was  found  among  the  common  people. 
Here  were  the  Jewish  homes,  where  relig- 
ion was  pure  and  sweet,  and  faith  took 
hold  upon  the  God  of  the  fathers,  —  where 
response  to  a  new  and  holy  influence, 
therefore,  was  most  possible.  Out  of  the 
common  class,  the  fishermen  and  the  poor, 
came  the  first  to  follow  Jesus.  Legalism 
had  not  blinded  the  eyes  of  these  to  spirit- 
ual beauty,  and  the  simple  saw  the  glory 
of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  Igno- 
rant of  many  things  they  were,  and  in 
religion  itself  they  needed  long  and  patient 


10  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

teaching,  yet  these  were  the  men  and 
women  to  whom  the  Master  could  say^ 
"  Blessed  are  your  eyes  for  they  see,  and 
your  ears  for  they  hear." 

When  the  Master  had  gone,  these  were 
his  heralds.  Enlightened  they  were  in 
heart  by  the  power  of  love  and  the  insight 
that  comes  from  spiritual  fellowship,  glow- 
ing and  enthusiastic  was  their  faith,  and 
yet  they  were  themselves,  and  could  pro- 
claim only  what  had  become  real  to  them. 
No  one  learns  great  things  thoroughly  in  a 
single  lesson.  It  is  vain  to  imagine  that 
the  first  disciples  could  know  their  Master 
perfectly  at  once,  for  even  the  divine 
Spirit  cannot  dispense  with  the  element 
of  time  in  guiding  human  beings  into 
truth.  The  fact  simply  is  that  a  new, 
glorious,  uplifting,  character-making  power 
was  taking  hold  of  men.  Forth  from 
Jesus  came  a  mighty  transforming  influ- 
ence. It  took  men  as  it  found  them,  for 
it  could  not  do  otherwise,  and  it  wrought 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  1 1 

upon  tliem  as  they  could  be  wrought  upon, 
for  it  could  not  do  more.  It  was  a  heav- 
enlj-  gift  amid  earthly  elements,  a  divine 
power  working  upon  human  materials. 
The  first  Christian  people  were  the  human 
materials  upon  which  this  divine  power 
had  done,  and  was  doing,  its  initial  work. 
They  were  this,  and  nothing  more. 

We  can  trace  the  process.  The  Chris- 
tian message  met  its  inevitable  fate  in  the 
hearing  that  it  received.  The  hearers 
heard  with  their  own  ears,  and  understood 
by  means  of  their  own  preconceptions. 
Every  growing  thing  grows  according  to 
the  soil  that  it  falls  into,  and  the  seed  of 
the  word  was  no  exception.  In  Jerusalem, 
the  message  was  taken  into  minds  full  of 
inherited  Jewish  ideas.  The  better  spirit 
of  the  Jewish  religion  and  the  narrow  con- 
straints of  Jewish  thought  conspired  to 
make  a  Jewish-Christian  people,  in  whom 
the  large  conceptions  and  spiritual  as^Dira- 
tions  of  Jesus  could  find  but  scanty  wel- 


12  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

come.  We  know  how  near  tlie  new  faith 
came  to  being  smothered  to  death  in  a 
Christian  Judaism,  and  how  Paul  was  the 
chosen  vessel  of  Christ  to  carry  his  name 
out  from  these  limitations  to  the  Gentiles, 
the  nations  of  the  world.  The  first  group 
of  the  Christian  ^Deople  came  near  burying 
the  gospel  alive  under  their  old  ideas  of 
narrow  religion. 

Paul  and  his  companions  did  carry  the 
Name  abroad,  and  the  Name  went  abroad 
with  power.  Through  the  Roman  world 
it  went,  everywhere  finding  its  welcome. 
Multitudes  received  it  with  joy,  and  found 
fresh  life  in  Christ.  Who  were  these? 
These  too  were  the  poor  and  untrained. 
Many  of  them  were  slaves,  and  many 
others  were  of  low  station  and  narrow  life. 
Christ  made  life  a  new  and  larger  thing, 
and  they  felt,  as  they  well  might  feel,  that 
the  best  thing  in  the  world  had  come  to 
them.  Among  the  believers  were  some  of 
large   intelligence   and   power.     Some    of 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  1 3 

them  could  receive  the  new  gift  not  only 
into  good  and  honest  hearts,  but  into  lives 
somewhat  prepared  to  bring  forth  the 
worthiest  fruit.  Yet  where  was  the  mind 
wherein  there  were  no  conceptions  that 
could  enter  into  union  with  the  new  faith 
only  to  injure  it  and  diminish  its  effective- 
ness? If  Jewish  legalism,  monotheistic 
though  narrow,  required  time  to  be  out- 
grown, how  must  it  be  with  polytheism, 
with  the  popular  superstitions  that  hung 
about  immemorial  beliefs,  and  with  the 
moral  corruptions  that  had  sprung  from 
the  coarse  worships  of  an  earlier  day? 
How  long  would  such  influences  as  these 
linger  when  a  new  moral  force,  still  new 
indeed,  was  entering  to  transform  the  life  ? 
Paul  rebukes  his  converts  in  Corinth  for 
low  standards  of  living,  and  low  vices 
inherited  from  a  long  antiquity,  and  this 
is  exactly  what  we  might  expect.  Nothing 
else  was  possible  than  that  such  evils 
should   abide   to   trouble   the    friends    of 


14  THE    CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


ChrisUike  goodness  in  the  church.  Errors 
in  thought  also,  misconceptions  of  the 
gospel,  sprang  up  from  the  remains  of  old 
thinking.  At  what  date  such  evils  could 
reasonably  be  expected  to  disappear,  let 
him  tell  who  dares  to  think  he  knows.  A 
Christian  people  could  not  be  made  except 
from  people  who  were  filled  with  material 
of  thought  and  character  quite  contrary  to 
the  aim  of  Christianity. 

Nevertheless  the  new  faith  made  its 
people.  It  was  not  defeated,  it  was  hon- 
orably successful.  It  was  far  from  making 
a  people  that  fulfilled  its  ideal,  but  it  made 
a  people  worthy  of  its  endeavor.  In  the 
first  age  there  was  a  distinctively  Christian 
life,  lived  by  a  distinctively  Clmstian  com- 
pany of  men  and  women.  It  was  a  very 
simple  life,  lived  by  a  very  simple  people, 
but  it  was  animated  in  great  measure  by 
the  holy  and  gracious  mind  of  Clii'ist. 
How  often  have  we  wished  that  the 
glimpses  into  it  that  are   possible   to   us 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  1 5 

were  not  so  very  few!  Why,  we  have 
asked,  has  not  more  been  preserved  to  us 
of  the  phxin  common  life  of  the  Christians 
of  the  first  and  second  centuries  ?  But  it 
is  not  surprising.  They  were  not  a  liter- 
ary folk.  Their  writers  were  few,  and 
that  they  were  making  history  they  had 
no  idea.  Such  glimpses  as  we  do  obtain 
are  extremely  precious.  It  was  a  great 
gift  when  we  recovered  the  long-lost 
"  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,"  with 
its  simple  and  unconscious  revelation  of 
the  people  and  their  ways.  Just  when 
and  where  its  scenes  were  enacted  v/e  may 
not  know,  but  it  is  certain  that  here  we 
have  a  genuine  view  of  life  as  it  was 
among  the  early  Christians.  As  we  read 
we  see  that  the  life  was  simple,  it  was 
devout,  it  was  brotherly,  it  was  hopeful, 
it  was  pure  in  aim  and  aspiration.  It  is 
easy  to  paint  the  Roman  life  of  the  first 
century  in  black,  ignoring  the  brighter 
and   worthier    elements    in    the    common 


1 6  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

world  of  that  time ;  and  yet,  though  we 
paint  ever  so  fairly,  it  is  plain  when  we 
view  this  simple  picture  of  Christian  living 
that  a  new  uplifting  force  has  entered  to 
the  great  Roman  world,  and  a  little  group 
of  humanity,  if  no  more,  has  been  intro- 
duced to  sweeter,  purer,  worthier  life. 
The  limitations  of  the  new  people  are 
written  into  the  record  as  clearly  as  their 
virtues,  and  the  common  faults  of  human 
nature  crop  out  in  the  conditions  that 
call  for  counsel  and  reproof;  yet  here  is 
a  genuine  fruit  of  the  presence  of  Jesus 
in  the  world  for  which  our  human  race 
may  well  be  thankful. 

Still  we  turn  from  the  picture,  and  from 
all  companion-pictures  that  we  possess, 
feeling  that  the  Christians  of  the  first  and 
second  centuries,  taken  as  a  mass,  were 
not  capable  of  propagating  the  Christian- 
ity that  the  Founder  meant  for  mankind. 
They  possessed  it  only  in  part,  and  how 
could  they  pass   on   the   traditions   of   a 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  1/ 

better  faith  than  they  hekl  ?  The  inevi- 
table had  happened;  the  new  faith  had 
taken  such  people  as  it  found,  and  they 
had  received  it  as  they  could.  But  a 
second  inevitable  followed.  The  people 
were  changed  by  the  new  faith,  but  the  new 
faith  was  changed  by  the  people.  Chris- 
tianity transformed  the  people  toward  its 
likeness,  and  was  in  turn  transformed  by 
them  toward  their  likeness.  Shakespeare, 
complaining,  in  one  of  his  Sonnets  says, 

"  My  nature  is  subdued 
To  what  it  works  in,  hke  the  dyer's  hand." 

In  the  same  strain  Christianity  might 
speak.  It  made  a  new  people,  better  than 
it  found  them ;  but  they  in  turn  inevitably 
made  a  new  Christianity,  with  its  strong 
points  illustrated  and  confirmed  in  their 
experience,  but  with  weakness  brought  in 
from  their  defects.  The  power  of  the  new 
faith  to  produce  a  people  worthy  of  its 
aims  was  inevitably  diminished,  less  or 
2 


1 8  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


more,  by  tlie  faults  that  it  was  compelled 
to  take  into  itself  from  the  people  through 
whom  it  wrought.  Intractableness  of 
material  modified  the  force. 

Or,  in  other  words,  the  Christian  people, 
with  all  its  good  and  evil,  with  all  its 
strength  and  weakness,  with  all  its  glory 
and  shame,  is  the  true  resultant  of  the 
force  that  has  been  working  and  the  ma- 
terial that  it  has  wrought  upon.  This  is 
one,  out  of  many,  of  the  historical  illus- 
trations of  the  ]\iaster's  parable  of  the  four 
kinds  of  soil.  The  good  seed  of  the  king- 
dom was  sown  in  the  world,  and  prospered 
in  its  growth  according  to  the  soil  into 
which  it  fell.  In  some  places  it  took  no 
root  at  all,  and  in  others  it  secured  only 
a  temporary  life.  Where  it  did  grow,  it 
sometimes  had  to  grow  in  soil  where  there 
were  thorn-roots  already  in  the  ground, 
and  it  must  needs  grow  up  among  them. 
If  it  is  asked  why  an  ideal  Christian  peo- 
ple did  not  grow  ujj,  sufficient  to  vanquish 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


all  doubts  of  the  transforming  power,  the 
answer  is  that  the  good  seed  did  not 
always  fall  into  tlie  clear  soil,  but  often, 
nay  always,  into  places  where  there  was 
something  to  check  and  sometliing  to  mod- 
ify its  growth.  The  good  seed  is  seed  in 
a  thorn-field.  But  then,  lest  we  be  dis- 
couraged, we  may  remember  that  it  was  in 
order  to  redeem  the  field  from  the  thorns 
that  the  seed  of  Christ  was  sown,  and  that 
in  God's  world  good  seed  roots  deeper,  in 
the  long  season,  than  the  thorns. 

This  glance  into  the  early  period  is 
enough  to  illustrate  the  conditions  that 
insured  to  the  rising  Christian  people 
both  strength  and  weakness,  victory  and 
disappointment.  Similar  conditions  have 
always  existed.  There  is  no  time  for 
detailed  description  of  that  which  the 
Christian  seed  has  produced  in  the  thorn- 
field,  but  we  will  glance  down  the  long 
line  of  results  in  history,  and  see,  so  far  as 


20  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


we  may,  what  manner  of  peox)le  it  is  that 
Christ  has  brought  into  the  world  through 
the  Christian  grace  working  amid  obstruct- 
insr  influences. 

The  Christian  people  has  a  certain  unity; 
but  in  what  does  it  consist  ?     There  is  no 
one  type  of  humanity,  no  one  nationality 
or  race  or   class  or   training   represented 
here.     The  Christian   i)eople   is  gathered 
out  of  all  nations  and  kindreds  and  peo- 
ples and  tongues,  and  yet  it  is   marked 
by  one  type  of  experience  and  character. 
Only  very  broadly  can  this  be  asserted,  I 
know,    but    broadly   it    can    be    asserted. 
There  is  a  set  of  conceptions  and  experi- 
ences by  which  the  Christian  character  is 
dominated,  and  where  these  are  not,  there 
are  no  Christians.     They  did  not  all  come 
into  the  world  with  Christ,  but  they  all 
gather  themselves  about  him  into  a  char- 
acter-giving  unity.      The   seriousness    of 
life,  the  holiness  and  love  of  the  one  God, 
the  reality  of  sin,  free  salvation  from  sin 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOTLE  2 1 

by  the  divine  grace  in  Christ,  human  duty 
learned  from  God  in  Christ,  an  inward 
power  for  goodness,  a  deathless  hope,  — 
these  are  the  fundamental  conceptions  of 
Christianity,  and  the  Christian  people  are 
those  whose  experience  corresponds  to 
these  conceptions.  Or,  more  truly,  Christ 
presents  these  as  realities,  and  the  Chris- 
tian people  are  those  who  experience  these 
realities.  Such  experiences  create  a  type 
of  character.  No  other  religion  ever  had 
such  experiences  to  offer,  and  therefore 
none  ever  made  a  people  like  the  Christian 
people.  Knowledge  of  God  is  common 
enough,  but  not  such  knowledge  of  God : 
knowledge  of  sin  is  common,  but  not  of 
such  deliverance  from  sin :  knowledge  of 
duty,  but  not  such  inspiration  for  duty : 
hope,  but  not  such  hope.  When  there 
comes  to  be  a  people  formed,  however  im- 
fectly,  upon  the  experience  of  these  reali- 
ties, that  people  is  the  work  of  Christ. 
Members  of  such  a  people,  bearing  such 


22  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

a  character,  have  been  known  m  all  the 
Christian  ages.  They  have  been  imper- 
fect, all,  with  every  style  and  combination 
of  imperfections.  Every  side  of  the  char- 
acteristic experience  has  been  lacking 
somewhere,  and  somewhere  exaggerated 
or  distorted.  They  have  not  understood 
one  another  very  well,  and  have  often 
failed  to  recocrnize  one  another.  Never- 
theless  the  common  quality  has  marked 
them,  less  or  more,  and  they  have  been 
brothers  whether  they  knew  it  or  not. 
The  people  wdio  know  by  experience  about 
sin  and  salvation,  and  learn  their  duty 
from  their  Saviour  God,  and  lift  their 
eyes  to  immortality  in  him,  these  do  make 
one  family,  a  noble  family,  and  God  is 
not  ashamed  of  them,  to  be  called  their 
God. 

A  character-making  force  working  upon 
various  and  imperfect  men  will,  of  course, 
produce  some  best  results.  Some  men  are 
best  prepared  beforehand  for  Christ's  in- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  23 

fliience,  and  in  some  tlie  oppositions  are 
most  effectively  conquered.  These  are  the 
leaders,  the  best  fruits.  Every  religion 
has  its  saints,  and  Christianity  has  its  long 
calendar  and  its  innumerable  saints  un- 
named. The  overtowerinof  souls  that 
stand  high  above  the  rest,  the  ones  in 
whom  Chi-istianity  has  done  most,  —  a 
noble  company  they  form.  If  we  could 
clearly  behold  a  group  of  the  great  Chris- 
tians of  the  world,  discerning  their  real 
spiritual  beauty,  we  should  reverently  bear 
witness  to  the  excellence  of  the  heavenly 
gift.  In  the  group  of  greatest  Christians 
we  should  find  men  and  women  of  deep 
and  serious  heart ;  persons  not  light- 
minded,  but  to  whom  life  is  full  of  mean- 
ing ;  who  know  evil,  both  in  themselves 
and  in  the  world,  with  a  dreadful  sense  of 
its  reality ;  who  have  discerned  the  infmite 
grace  that  freely  saves,  and  come  to  know 
the  eternal  jroodness  in  the  God  who  loves 
forever ;  who  know  the  gladness  of  deliv- 


24  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

erance  from  evil,  the  brightness  of  hope 
and  the  exhilaration  of  strong  endeavor; 
who  have  loved  their  fellows  with  a  divine 
affection  and  labored  for  their  good ;  who 
know  the  eagerness  of  high  aims,  and  have 
used  liigh  powers  for  highest  purposes ; 
and  from  whom  there  has  gone  forth  a 
warm  radiance  of  blessing  as  they  have 
walked  among  men.  Children  of  faith, 
they  have  endured  as  seeing  him  who  is 
invisible.  Children  of  hope,  they  have 
purified  themselves,  even  as  he  is  pure. 
Children  of  love,  they  have  gazed  upon 
God's  glory  and  been  changed  into  the 
same  image.  Mark  all  their  imperfec- 
tions, not  denying  a  single  genuine  one, 
and  yet  we  must  bear  testimony  that 
these  great  Christian  souls  that  have  been 
among  us  are  a  worthy  product  of  the 
presence  and  work  of  Christ  in  the  world. 
AYithout  them,  how  much  poorer  would 
the  history  of  our  race  have  been  !  What 
would  it  be  to  di'op  from  the  record  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  25 

names,  and  from  the  human  stock  the 
personalities,  of  Paul  and  John,  of  Origen 
and  Athanasius,  of  Ambrose  and  Augustine 
and  Monica,  of  Chrysostom  and  Gregory 
the  Great  and  Thomas  Aquinas,  of  Tauler 
and  Thomas  a  Kempis,  of  Savonarola  and 
Dante  and  Michelangelo,  of  Francis  of 
Assisi  and  Xavier  and  Loyola,  of  Wyclif 
and  Huss,  of  Luther  and  Melanchthon, 
of  William  the  Silent  and  Cromwell  and 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  of  Baxter  and  Bun- 
yan,  of  Milton  and  George  Fox,  of  Calvin 
and  John  Knox,  of  the  Wesleys  and  White- 
field  and  Edwards,  of  Shaftesbury  and 
Gladstone  and  Leo  Thirteenth,  of  Eliza- 
beth Fry  and  Florence  Nightingale,  of 
Livingstone,  Channing,  Moody,  and  Phil- 
lips Brooks  ?  If  besides  these  there  have 
stood  forth  leaders  who  misrepresented 
the  Christian  quality,  —  which  not  one 
even  of  these  has  perfectly  expressed, — 
what  else  can  be  expected  when  a  holy 
power  is  working  through  imperfect  men, 


26  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

whose  training  has  prepared  them  only  in 
part  for  their  honorable  mission  ? 

We  must  not  think  that  the  list  of  the 
great  adequately  represents  the  Christian 
people.  We  must  remember  the  rank  and 
file  if  we  wish  to  think  justly  of  the  whole. 
Saints  are  of  many  kinds,  not  all  equally 
eminent  in  the  sight  of  the  world.  The 
lesser  ones  are  precious,  as  well  as  the 
greater.  Two  classes  of  saints  have  at- 
tracted special  admiration.  The  church 
has  often  admired  the  saints  of  the  cloister, 
withdrawn  from  the  world,  given  to  medi- 
tation and  prayer,  rebuking  the  evil  of  the 
common  life  by  retirement  and  reflection 
upon  better  things.  Eyes  that  have  not 
been  attracted  to  these  have  been  drawn 
to  the  saints  of  the  open  field,  strong 
workmen  or  warriors  of  the  Lord,  doing 
large  work  and  known  of  all  men.  But 
Christ,  who  gave  some  as  apostles  and 
some  as  prophets,  has  also  raised  up  saints 
of   the  household,  who  are   mediators   of 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  2/ 

grace  and  strength  to  those  whom  they 
love ;  saints  of  the  sick-chamber,  who 
suffer  and  are  strong  through  the  holy 
faith ;  saints  of  the  market-place  and  the 
workshop,  who  do  the  world's  common 
work  in  the  spirit  of  fidelity  and  power; 
citizen-saints,  who  bless  the  organized  life 
of  man  by  wise  counsel  and  unselfish  liv- 
ing; scholar-saints,  who  minister  knowl- 
edo'e  to  mankind ;  and  saints  of  the  life  of 
charity,  who  bear  the  heart  of  Christ  to 
the  needy.  These  all  fall  short  of  the 
Lord's  ideal,  but  yet  we  all  know  that  in 
them  Christ  has  honorably  accomplished 
his  purpose  to  make  for  himself  a  people 
for  his  own  possession,  zealous  of  good 
works,  powerful  for  blessing. 

Large  perversions  in  the  life  and  prac- 
tice of  the  Christian  people  have  of  course 
appeared  :  what  would  you  look  for  ?  We 
will  o'lance  at  a  classical  instance,  and  see 
how  naturally  they  came.  For  a  while 
Christianit}^  was  the  religion  of  the  mar- 


28  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

tjTS.  Pure,  simple,  and  courageous  in  its 
common  life,  it  condemned  the  evil  world 
and  insured  for  itself  an  honorable  hatred. 
Unswerving  in  loyalty  to  the  only  God,  it 
angered  the  Roman  power  again  and  again, 
and  secured  the  crown  of  martyrdom. 
Martyrdom  does  not  prove  a  cause  to  be 
right,  and  yet  it  always  carries  a  strong 
suggestion  to  that  effect.  The  church  of 
the  martyrs  was  kept  sweet  by  its  trials 
and  perils,  and  the  suffering  church  was  a 
singing  church,  joyful  in  its  pains  and 
influential  through  its  fortitude.  There 
is  a  fine  charm  about  the  humble  and 
hopeful  church  of  the  catacombs.  But 
the  church  came  out  of  the  catacombs,  and 
was  soon  placed  at  the  head  of  the  world's 
affairs.  When  Constantino  professed  the 
Christian  name,  the  name  instantly  became 
fashionable.  Profession  of  Christianity 
was  now  the  way  to  promotion  and  advan- 
tage :  therefore  the  church-doors  were 
crowded   with   people   rushing   in.      The 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  29 

so-called  Christian  people  of  the  middle 
of  the  fourth  century  were  most  of  them 
not  Christians  at  all,  in  any  worthy  sense  : 
they  were  nominal  converts,  scarcely 
changed  from  the  paganism  of  antiquity. 
Yet  they  were  the  recognized  Christian 
people  of  the  time,  and  it  was  inevitable 
that  they  should  set  the  key  for  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  time  that  followed.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  the  religious  life  ran  low, 
and  the  virtue  of  the  gospel  partly  van- 
ished away  from  those  who  bore  the  holy 
name.  Here  was  the  inevitable  again. 
Victory  came  naturally,  and  deservedly,  to 
the  fresh  and  vigorous  faith,  as  against  the 
decaying  paganism,  but  victory  brought 
corruption  in  its  train,  from  the  necessities 
of  the  case.  The  holy  power  had  been 
thrown  out  into  the  field  of  the  world, 
and  for  the  time,  in  certain  respects,  its 
nature  was  subdued  to  what  it  wrought  in, 
like  the  dyer's  hand. 

Another  perversion  in  the  common  life 


30  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


of  the  Christian  people,  —  at  least  it  seems 
a  perversion  to  us  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, with  our  irrepressible  enterprise  and 
our  readiness  for  risks  and  conflicts,  — 
came  as  naturally  as  this.  There  came  a 
time  when  a  large  part  of  the  best  of  the 
Christian  people,  the  most  high-minded 
and  the  best  adapted  to  useful  living,  were 
moved  to  withdraw  from  the  common  life 
of  man.  The  monastic  impulse  came,  and 
would  not  be  refused.  The  souls  that 
were  most  needed  for  the  universal  strife 
left  the  field  for  the  life  of  quietness,  and 
the  best  leaven  for  improvement  of  the 
evil  world  was  withdrawn  into  cloisters. 
Multitudes  of  the  men  who  would  have 
made  the  best  fathers,  and  of  the  women 
who  would  have  made  the  best  mothers, 
declined  to  make  contribution  to  the  stock 
of  humanity.  The  quiet,  meditative,  non- 
productive life,  withdi'awn  from  the  re- 
sponsibilities to  which  mankind  is  born, 
was  held  out  as  holier  than  the  common 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  3  I 

life,  and  the  monastic  ideal  was  set  up  for 
universal  admiration.  Good  results  fol- 
lowed, and  also  evil :  great  good  and  great 
evil.  The  more  largely  human  we  grow, 
the  greater  seems  the  pity  that  the  move- 
ment went  so  far.  Yet  how  inevitably  it 
came  about.  Face  to  face  stood  the  good 
and  the  evil,  the  good  of  the  gospel  and 
tlie  evil  of  the  world,  the  good  of  the 
reforming  power  and  the  evil,  ancient  and 
strong,  that  ought  to  be  put  away.  The 
Christian  people  had  no  long  traditions  of 
holy  warfare  to  inherit,  and  had  not  very 
well  learned  the  lesson  of  confidence  in 
the  good  for  which  they  were  set  to  con- 
tend. To  many  of  them  the  case  seemed 
hopeless  :  so  great  a  world,  how  could  its 
evil  be  conquered  ?  Would  it  not  corrupt 
even  those  who  tried  to  bless  it?  All  that 
they  could  do  was  to  flee,  and  hide  them- 
selves, and  seek  the  safety  of  their  souls, 
and  pray  to  God  for  the  victory  which 
they  lacked  courage  to  seek  in  strife.    We 


32  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

cannot  wonder  at  the  feeling.  We  can 
call  the  motive  inferior  to  the  best,  as 
surely  it  was,  but  we  cannot  be  surprised 
at  the  force  of  it,  or  affirm  that  it  was 
altogether  an  unworthy  motive.  It  was 
a  pure  motive,  even  if  it  was  not  the 
loftiest.  The ,  great  secession  from  the 
daily  working  force  of  Christianity  was 
one  of  the  inevitable  incidents  in  the 
great   warfare. 

We  cannot  now  illustrate  the  process 
farther.  But  thus,  through  the  successive 
periods,  the  Christian  people  has  gone  on, 
responding  to  surrounding  influences  as 
well  as  to  inward  monitions,  changing  with 
changing  conditions,  growing  with  the 
common  growth  of  mankind,  influenced 
by  the  world  which  it  was  influencing,  and 
yet  maintaining  a  special  quality  and  value 
of  its  own.  Very  largely  it  was  what  it 
had  to  be :  it  had  the  virtues  of  its  inner 
grace,  and  the  faulto  of  its  inheritance  and 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  33 

its  surroundings.     It  could  not  have  been 
otherwise. 

What  is  the  outcome?  This  is  the 
question  that  concerns  us  now.  Wliat 
has  the  Lord  of  Christianity  to  show  after 
all  this  time  ?  How  well  does  the  present 
Christian  people  commend  the  power  that 
came  into  the  world  with  Christ?  How 
are  Christians  doing  their  work  as  a  gift 
of  Christ  to  humanity  ?  All  sorts  of  opin- 
ions are  held.  Some  say  that  Christian 
people  are  demonstrably  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  without  which  very  little  that  is 
sweet  or  good  would  be  found  among 
men:  and  others  are  sure  that  whatever 
power  they  may  once  have  had  is  now 
departed.     What  shall  we  say? 

The  mixed  quality  of  the  present  out- 
come calls  for  no  apology.  Absolutely, 
there  could  be  nothing  else.  Those  who 
discuss  the  Christian  people  as  if  they 
could  expect  to  find  in  them  an  adequate 
illustration  of  the  ideal  of  Christ,  simply 
3 


34  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

do  not  know  what  they  are  talking  about. 
In  the  conditions  that  have  surrounded 
Christianity,  such  a  thing  is  impossible. 
So  the  present  Christian  people  are  not  to 
be  defended  as  satisfactory,  or  condemned 
as  worthless.  They  are  not  to  be  counted 
upon  for  perfection,  or  rejected  for  imper- 
fection. A  resultant  necessarily  partakes 
in  the  nature  and  quality  of  all  the  forces 
that  have  produced  it.  Good  and  evil, 
strength  and  weakness,  are  certain  to  be 
present  here.  Christianity  is  the  life  of 
God  in  the  soul  of  man,  and  its  human 
outcome  must  partake  in  the  qualities 
both  of  God  and  of  man. 

If  we  inquire  about  the  Christian  people 
of  the  present  day,  they  must  be  estimated 
in  view  of  an  element  that  I  have  not  yet 
mentioned.  I  mean  the  great  transition, 
the  tremendous  revolution,  of  our  time. 
It  is  not  as  if  the  Christian  people  had 
attained  to  a  platform  where  they  could  be 
exhibited.      On    the    contrary,   they    are 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  35 

passing   through   the    severest    transition, 
perhaps,  in  all  their  history. 

Into  this  transition  more  elements  enter 
than  I  can  now  name.  Our  part  of  the 
human  race  is  at  last  beginning  to  possess 
a  real  self-consciousness.  Information,  in 
inconceivably  vast  amount,  is  being  thrown 
upon  the  thought  of  the  time,  to  be  handled 
and  assimilated.  Thought  is  passing  over 
from  the  old  non-scientific  methods  to  the 
more  nearly  scientific  movement  that  mod- 
ern study  has  developed.  Facts  are  scru- 
tinized with  new  zeal,  and  truth  is  tested 
in  new  ways.  Inquiry  knows  no  bounds. 
Antiquity  and  prescription  count  for  noth- 
ing. We  desire  to  know  the  very  thing 
that  is,  and  our  certainties  are  differently 
grounded  from  those  that  our  fathers  held. 
Vast  social  problems  arise,  in  which  we 
are  compelled  to  find  out  whether  we  are 
living  together  as  we  ought,  and  what  we 
owe  to  one  another.  All  fields  of  thought 
are  transformed,  and  all  modes  and  signifi- 


36  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

cances  of  life  are  altered,  in  this  great 
time  of  change.  Every  period  is  a  period 
of  transition,  but  there  has  never  been  one 
like  tliis. 

Amid  these  great  changes  the  Christian 
people,  as  I  conceive,  have  three  things  to 
do.  Three  things  are  required  of  them  by 
the  nature  of  the  Christianity  which  they 
represent,  and  in  these  they  must  not  be 
found  wanting.  The  Christian  people  are 
called  to-day  to  hold  their  faith,  to  open 
their  minds,  and  to  expand  their  hearts. 
First,  to  hold  their  faith.  They  are  called 
to  hold  fast  their  sense  of  spiritual  reality ; 
not  to  be  shaken  from  their  confidence  in 
that  living  God  whom  they  and  their 
fathers  have  known ;  to  cling  to  the  real- 
ity of  religious  life  and  the  presence  of 
divine  help ;  to  be  religious  in  tenderness 
of  spirit  and  heavenliness  of  mind,  when 
the  age  is  almost  forgetting  to  be  religious. 
Next,  to  open  their  minds.  They  are 
called  to  perceive  that  they  are  living  in  a 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  37 

new  age ;  to  believe  in  the  validity  of  all 
facts  and  be  willing  to  go  where  facts  may 
lead;  to  accept  reconstructions;  to  let 
knowledge  in,  well  assured  that  it  will  not 
drive  faith  out ;  to  be  as  free  with  knowl- 
edge as  they  are  with  faith.  And  while 
these  two  works  go  on,  the  Christian  peo- 
ple are  called  also  to  expand  their  hearts, 
so  that  they  shall  be  loving  men  with 
Christ's  own  love ;  to  rejoice  with  them 
that  rejoice  and  weep  with  them  that  weep 
and  plan  for  them  that  suffer ;  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  humanity  with  wise  and  help- 
ful tenderness ;  to  forswear  aristocratic  ex- 
clusiveness  and  minister  to  men  as  men,  as 
Jesus  did.  This  great  tln-eefold  calling 
is  the  present  calling  of  the  Christian 
people. 

How  are  they  fulfilling  it?  Not  alto- 
gether well,  or  altogether  ill.  It  is  the 
inevitable  again.  We  have  to  confess  that 
there  is  much  division  of  labor  here  :  some 
hold  their  faith  while   others   open    their 


38  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 


minds  :  some  open  their  minds  while  others 
expand  their  hearts.  This  is  not  strange, 
for  in  a  great  mass  of  people  it  is  only 
natural  that  one  part  of  the  general  duty 
should  be  more  worthily  done  by  some 
than  by  others.  A  certain  distribution  of 
parts  cannot  fail  to  occur.  Yet  this  is  not 
the  ideal.  It  is  to  be  desired  that  every 
one  of  the  Christian  people  should  hold 
his  faith,  open  his  mind,  and  expand  his 
heart.  And  toward  the  ideal  there  is 
some  progress.  Far  from  perfectly,  yet 
more  and  more,  it  is  coming  to  pass.  The 
Christian  people  respond  but  slowly  to 
demands  upon  them,  —  so  slowly  that  it  is 
easy  to  be  impatient  with  them,  —  and  yet 
they  do  respond.  The  mind  does  open, 
and  yet  the  faith  is  held,  and  meanwhile 
the  heart  expands  in  love  and  helpfulness. 
Imperfectly  and  slowly,  yet  really,  the 
Christian  people  are  at  least  beginning  to 
rise  to  the  demands  of  the  present  age. 
It  would  be  pleasant  to  praise  the  Chris- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  39 

tian  people  here,  to  point  out  their  better 
works  and  tell  how  well  they  are  do- 
ing. But  instead  of  this  I  shall  do  what 
perhaps  my  auditors  do  not  expect  of  me. 
I  believe  that  the  danger  that  the  Chris- 
tian people  may  miss  their  calling  is 
greater  than  the  need  of  praise  for  their 
successes :  and  a  few  words  in  this  strain 
I  must  speak.  I  greatly  fear  that  many 
among  them  may  fail  to  hold  their  faith. 
I  fear  that  many  may  fail  to  open  their 
minds.  I  fear  that  many  may  fail  to  ex- 
pand their  hearts.  And  my  anxiety  gives 
me  a  message. 

By  failing  to  hold  their  faith  I  do  not 
mean  failing  to  keep  their  opinions.  By 
faith  I  mean  something  more  precious  far : 
I  mean  the  living  sense  of  unseen  spiritual 
realities,  and  firm  trust  in  the  living  God. 
What  I  fear  is  that  many  Christians  may 
not  "see  him  who  is  invisible,"  and  not 
live  in  the  presence  of  the  Father  who  is  in 
secret.     The  danger  is  that  they  may  be 


40  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

content  with  holding  opinions  and  mistak- 
insr  them  for  faith,  and  be  without  that 
undying  sense  of  reality  in  God  to  which 
alone  the  noble  name  of  faith  belongs. 
They  will  then  preach  unreally,  and  talk 
insincerely,  and  live  feebly.  They  will  be 
Christians  in  name,  but  the  secret  of  power 
will  be  theirs  no  longer.  And  I  fear  no 
less  that  many  Christians  may  fail  to  open 
their  minds.  I  know  the  difficulty,  only 
too  well.  The  very  effort  to  hold  their 
faith  may  lead  them  to  keep  their  minds 
closed  against  knowledge  that  no  honest 
mind  can  permanently  refuse.  To  open 
the  mind  and  hold  the  inner  sense  of 
spiritual  reality  is  not  easy  for  all.  There 
are  men  enough  who  tell  us  that  it  cannot 
be  done,  and  will  not  long  be  attempted. 
Unbelievers  in  Christianity  declare  the 
impossibility  from  one  side,  and  a  large 
class  of  Christians  from  the  other.  I  am 
afraid  that  too  many  of  the  Christian  peo- 
ple, mistaught  from  both  sides,  may  come 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  4 1 


to  be  convinced,  and  hold  their  minds  un- 
worthily closed.  When  I  reflect  upon  the 
profoundly  conservative  instincts  of  reli- 
gious tradition,  and  the  surprising  and 
revolutionary  quality  of  much  of  the  truth 
that  our  time  brings  freshly  forth  to  us,  I 
fear  greatly  that  the  impulse  of  resistance 
may  be  too  strong  for  hosts  of  minds  that 
ought  to  be  opening  themselves  to  present 
truth  in  faith  upon  the  present  God,  and  the 
victory  may  be  where  it  ought  not.  And 
yet  again  I  fear  that  the  Christian  people 
may  fail  to  expand  their  hearts  in  helpful 
and  sympathetic  loVe  to  the  men  around 
them.  I  think  I  fear  this  most  of  all.  I 
know  how  strong  is  the  temptation  to 
make  love  an  abstract  virtue,  and  consider 
it  sufficient  to  love  God  whom  we  have 
not  seen,  while  the  brother  whom  we  have 
seen  makes  no  appeal  to  us.  I  know  how 
powerful  the  aristocratic  connections  of 
much  of  our  religious  life  are  becoming, 
and  how  many  churches  are  well  content 


42  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

to  dwell  alone  and  plan  for  their  own 
benefit,  while  the  poor  are  not  welcome 
among  them.  I  know  how  easy  is  the 
sway  of  selfishness,  and  how  seductive. 
The  problems  of  society  are  difiicult,  and 
it  is  easy  for  Christians  to  evade  responsi- 
bility for  them  by  pleading  that  they  are 
doing  something  better  than  attend  to 
them,  by  preaching  the  gospel  of  eternal 
life.  So  on  many  sides  I  meet  the  danger 
that  the  Christian  people  may  not  act  after 
the  manner  of  Jesus  in  dealing  with  their 
fellow-men,  in  this  solemn  day  when  the 
problems  of  the  life  of  man  with  man  are 
as  urgent  as  they  are  obscure.  And  all 
these  fears  I  entertain  by  the  side  of  my 
thankfulness  for  all  the  living  faith,  and 
all  the  frank  open-mindedness,  and  all  the 
warm  and  helpful  love,  that  I  behold  in 
the  Christian  people  and  joyfully  acknowl- 
edge as  the  work  of  God  in  them. 

I  am  not  speaking  here  to  a  company  of 
the  Christian  people :  I  am  addressing  a 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  43 

company  of  sincere  and  high-minded  hu- 
man beings,  devoted  to  the  work  of  educa- 
tion. It  is  a  company  in  which  a  Christian 
man  has  honorable  standing  if  he  deserves 
it,  and  a  non-Christian  man  has  the  same 
on  the  same  terms.  Not  as  Christians  or 
as  non-Christians  therefore  do  I  address 
my  auditors.  All  the  more  freely  for  this 
reason  can  I  speak  to  them  all ;  and  to  my 
present  audience  I  have  a  message.  The 
Christian  people  are  among  us,  and,  with 
all  their  faults,  have  proved  themselves  a 
good  gift  of  God  to  mankind.  Our  world 
needs  them  now,  and  needs  to  have  them 
at  their  best  and  strongest.  It  never 
needed  them  more,  for  they  stand  for  that 
high  spiritual  life  and  meaning  which  the 
present  vv^orld  is  in  great  danger  of  for- 
getting. Yet  here  they  stand,  in  this 
trying  transition-age,  surrounded  by  subtle 
dangers.  To  all  who  hear  me  in  this  hon- 
orable company  I  appeal,  and  I  say.  Help 
us  Christian  people  of   your  own  genera- 


44  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

tion  to  fuliil  our  calling.  Whatever  your 
own  beliefs  may  be,  help  us  to  be  what  we 
ought.  Help  us  to  open  our  minds.  Press 
on  with  your  work  of  enlarging  the  boun- 
daries of  knowledge.  Make  clear  and  in- 
telligible and  irresistible  whatever  you 
discover,  and  urge  it  upon  us  with  all 
persistency.  Keep  your  own  tempers 
sweet,  in  order  that  you  may  the  better 
commend  to  us  what  we  need  to  receive 
from  you.  Be  candid  with  us,  in  order  that 
we  ma}^  have  confidence  in  you  and  learn 
the  better  from  you.  Teach  us  the  truth 
of  the  time,  and  teach  us  so  wisely  and  in 
so  fair  a  spirit  that  we  cannot  but  receive 
what  you  have  to  offer  us.  Thus  help  us 
to  open  our  minds.  Help  us  also,  I  beg 
not  less  earnestly,  to  hold  our  faith,  —  for 
even  this  service  does  not  lie  beyond  your 
reach.  Do  not  profess  to  know  that  our 
faith  amounts  to  nothing.  Do  not  claim 
to  be  sure  that  there  is  no  place  for  faith. 
Open  your   minds  to  that  great  spiritual 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  45 

secret  which  philosophy  discerns,  and  upon 
the  confines  of  whicli  science  itself  is 
treading,  and  of  which  religion  is  the 
revelation.  Forbear  to  scorn  our  sense  of 
a  great,  abiding,  eternal,  spiritual  reality, 
but  rather  encourage  and  help  us  to  fill 
with  the  thought  of  God  that  space  which 
cannot  be  left  vacant  without  darkening 
the  universe.  Help  us  also  to  limit  faith 
to  the  true  field  of  faith.  Batter  down 
things  that  we  may  try  to  set  up  as  objects 
of  faith  that  are  not  properly  such.  Hold 
us  to  clear  speech  and  honest  declaration. 
Drive  us  back  to  our  essentials  and  our 
simplicities.  Make  us  miserable  when  we 
try  to  defend  mere  outposts  as  if  they  were 
the  citadel.  Compel  us  to  assert  the  few 
eternal  verities,  and  then  join  us  in  setting 
them  by  the  side  of  the  other  certainties 
that  you  proclaim  to  us.  And  help  us 
also,  I  entreat,  to  expand  our  hearts  in 
sympathetic  and  helpful  love.  Reprove 
us  for  our  selfishness  when  you  behold  it, 


1/ 


46  THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE 

dealino-  with  us  in  the  faithfulness  of  sor- 
rowful  sincerity.  Come  also  and  be  our 
fellow-helpers  in  the  field  of  love.  All 
that  is  human  should  care  for  all  that  is 
human,  and  this  field  of  humanity  is  as 
truly  yours  as  ours.  Inspire  us  to  emula- 
tion of  your  humanitarian  endeavors  and 
successes.  Let  us  together  be  planning 
for  the  larger  good  of  our  country  and 
our  fellows  everywhere.  The  vast  social 
problems  ought  to  attract  us  all,  whatever 
we  are,  and  to  hold  our  best  attention  till 
we  have  actually  accomplished  something 
for  the  betterment  of  the  common  lot  of 
men.  Work  with  us  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus: 
for  what  better  spirit  is  there  for  any  son 
of  humanity  to  make  his  own  than  his? 
Thus  help  us  to  serve  our  kind.  Whoever 
is  at  the  front  in  any  good  endeavor,  let 
us  all  encourage  him :  and  together  let  us 
hope  that  the  Christian  people  may  rise 
to  their  true  character,  and  fulfil  the  up- 
ward movement  of   their  history,  and  be 


THE   CHRISTIAN  PEOPLE  4/ 

worthy  of  their  Lord,  and  do  those  greater 
works  of  love  and  power  which  their 
Master  foretold  for  them  in  the  days 
when  the  world's  work  should  be  upon 
their  shoulders. 


n 


THE   CHEISTIAN   DOCTRINE 

The  Christian  Doctrine  begins,  of  course, 
with  the  teaching  of  the  Founder. 

Not  without  reason  is  Jesus  known  as 
the  Great  Teacher.  He  was  no  orator,  it 
is  true,  nor  was  he  a  formal  preacher,  but 
rather  a  quiet  converser,  a  talker  among 
men.  Yet  he  spoke  with  marvellous 
power,  and  made  his  mark  upon  the  in- 
most life  of  his  hearers.  Never  man  spoke 
like  him,  they  said.  They  felt  the  author- 
ity that  moved  in  his  words.  Only  frag- 
ments of  his  utterance  have  been  preserved 
to  us,  but  the  brief  discourses  and  conver- 
sations that  we  read  in  the  Gospels  stand 
unique  in  spiritual  power  among  the  ut- 
terances of  the  world.  They  represent  a 
vast  mass  of  teaching,  lost  to  us  in  form 
but  preserved  in  its  fruits :  for  out  of  his 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  49 

spiritual  wealth  there  poured,  throughout 
his  ministry,  an  abundance  of  spoken  truth 
that  remained  to  perpetuate  his  influence 
and  serve  as  the  foundation  of  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine.  The  early  church  started 
upon  its  way  with  its  memory  stored  with 
the  rich  and  fruitful  utterances  of  the 
Master. 

One  might  think  that  the  Master's  utter- 
rances  would  forever  stand  alone,  and 
would  constitute  the  entire  sum  of  doc- 
trine for  Christianity.  Who  would  ven- 
ture to  add,  when  he  had  spoken  ?  More 
especially  when  the  church  had  come,  as 
it  soon  did  come,  to  adore  him  as  divine, 
how  could  the  teaching  of  any  others, 
especially  of  his  own  disciples,  be  added 
to  what  he  had  given  ?  Yet  on  the  other 
hand  who  could  bo  restrained  from  add- 
ing ?  Jesus  had  not  merely  brought  into 
the  world  a  quantity  of  truth  to  leave  it 
there :  he  had  opened  a  perpetual  fount  of 
truth,  which  could  not  cease  to  flow.  He 
4 


50  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


had  given  the  Christian  people  a  new  light 
on  all  things.  He  had  shown  them  how  to 
know  the  things  that  are.  That  process 
of  thinking,  learning,  and  knowing,  which 
is  endless  for  man  because  it  is  man's 
glory,  would  thenceforth  go  on,  for  them, 
in  the  light  of  the  truth  that  he  had  taught 
them.  By  an  inevitable  and  most  blessed 
necessity,  his  friends  would  apply  what  he 
had  shown  them  to  the  interpretation  of 
all  that  they  thought  or  knew.  Paul  did 
this,  and  John.  In  their  teaching  they 
did  not  merely  repeat  what  Jesus  had 
said  :  they  looked  for  themselves  into  the 
mystery  of  God  and  of  life,  and  for  them- 
selves they  thought  out  truth  in  that  sub- 
lime region.  This  is  what  their  Master 
desired  them  to  do,  for  he  came  among 
them  to  make  men  of  the  first  order,  able 
to  think  right  and  true  thoughts  about  the 
living  God.  He  still  desires  the  same. 
We  too  shall  i)lease  him  best  if  we  humbly, 
reverently,  resolutely,  hopefully,  think  for 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  5  I 

ourselves,  in  that  region  of  truth  which 
his  mission  opens  before  us. 

Thus  came  into  being  the  Christian  doc- 
trine ;  and  we  see  at  once  that  it  was 
formed  from  two  sources.  First  came  the 
great  contribution  of  the  one  Lord  himself, 
the  truth  that  his  people  had  from  him. 
Tlien  was  added  the  contribution  of  Chris- 
tian men  who  saw  light  in  his  light,  and 
had  visions  of  the  truth  of  God  throuefh 
his  illumination.  Christianity  began  its 
course  rich  with  the  treasure  of  the  Mas- 
ter's utterances,  and  grew  yet  richer  as  it 
went  on,  —  strange  yet  glorious  to  say,  — 
through  the  diligent  and  inspired  thought 
of  holy  men,  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
devoted  to  the  things  of  God.  Both  these 
parts  of  the  primeval  doctrine  were  gath- 
ered into  the  New  Testament,  which  with 
its  immeasurable  wealth  of  living  truth  is 
the  noble  fruit  of  Christ's  presence  in  the 
world. 

But  do  not  fail  to  notice  how  the  Chris- 


52  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

tian  doctrine  came  into  existence.  Do  not 
imagine  that  it  came  by  being  formulated 
some  fine  day  by  the  decree  of  some  great 
council,  or  by  the  command  or  endorsement 
of  authorized  men.  The  teaching  of  Jesus 
did  not  grow  into  doctrine  by  being  writ- 
ten out  and  formulated,  or  by  being  dis- 
cussed and  officially  interpreted.  Not  all 
that  his  apostles  said  or  wrote  entered  into 
the  substance  of  the  Christian  doctrine, 
nor  all  that  Jesus  himself  said,  either. 
Doctrine  was  no  such  formal,  external 
thing  as  to  take  up  something  merely  be- 
cause it  had  been  said,  even  though  it 
were  by  the  Lord  himself.  No,  doctrine 
grew  as  a  vital  thing,  and  grew  in  the  soil 
of  life.  The  Christian  doctrine  sprang 
up  in  the  experience  of  Christian  living. 
It  was  the  Christian  truth  as  learned 
by  the  Christian  people ;  and  both  ele- 
ments, the  truth  and  the  experience,  were 
essential  to  the  producing  of  it.  Any 
thought  that  did  not  take  root  in  this  vital 


THE    CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  53 

soil,  and  take  root  to  stay  and  live,  did  not 
come  to  form  a  part  of  the  Christian  doc- 
trine. The  process  was  simply  a  vital 
process  of  assimilation.  Jesus  appeared 
among  men,  and  poured  out  spiritual 
truth  in  great  abundance.  Ho  poured 
it  out  by  what  he  said,  by  what  he  did, 
and  by  what  he  was.  Words,  deeds, 
and  personality  all  preached :  life,  death, 
and  resurrection  all  uttered  living  and 
powerful  truth.  This  rich  and  various 
utterance  that  Jesus  made  fell  into  the 
hearing  and  the  hearts  of  men  and  women 
who  became  the  Christian  people.  Into 
the  very  being  of  these  men  and  women 
this  truth  entered,  with  transforming 
power,  and  a  new  life  sprang  up  in  them. 
By  and  by  it  came  to  pass  that  this  truth 
from  Jesus  had  filtered  through  their 
minds  and  hearts  and  life,  and  come  forth 
to  expression  on  the  other  side.  It  is  this 
second  expression,  this  reproduction,  this 
lived-over   substance,    of   the    truth    that 


54  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


Jesus  brought,  that  constitutes  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine.  Nothing  properly  belongs  to 
the  Christian  doctrine  that  has  not  passed 
through  this  process.  Not  until  the  Chris- 
tian people  have  made  the  Christian  truth 
their  own  and  given  it  form  from  their  own 
experience,  does  there  come  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian doctrine.  The  contribution  of  Jesus  to 
mankind  became  doctrine  in  his  church  by- 
passing through  the  experience  to  which  it 
gave  rise  in  men,  and  coming  out  in  the 
form  which  that  experience  gave  to  it. 

Have  I  made  plain  how  the  Cliristian 
doctrine  came  into  existence  ?  Is  it  clear 
that  the  truth  that  Jesus  gave  became 
Christian  doctrine  through  the  medium  of 
the  Christian  people  and  their  life  ?  Then 
it  is  time  to  inquire  what  the  contents  of 
this  original  Christian  doctrine  are.  What 
was  the  doctrine,  or  the  experienced,  real- 
ized, and  re-uttered  truth,  with  which 
Christianity  began  its  course? 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  55 

Here  I  know  that  I  touch  disputed 
ground,  possibly  dangerous  ground.  There 
are  many  opinions  as  to  what  the  doctrinal 
stock  of  the  first  Christianity  was.  We 
are  all  tempted  to  count  our  own  doctrines 
in,  and  assume  that  our  own  form  of 
Christianity  is  the  original.  But  I  think 
we  can  reach  some  reasonably  satisfactory 
answer  to  the  question  that  has  just  been 
asked.  If  we  are  careful  to  keep  the  ques- 
tion in  the  form  that  has  now  been  given 
to  it,  I  think  it  can  be  answered.  This  is 
the  form  :  —  What  truths  do  we  find,  that 
came  forth  from  Jesus,  and  filtered  through 
the  life  and  experience  of  the  early  Chris- 
tian people,  into  expression  in  Christian 
doctrine  ?  Certainly  there  are  five  great 
truths  that  stand  thus  related  to  Christ 
and  to  the  experience  of  his  followers. 
Perhaps  there  are  more:  we  will  judge 
when  we  have  looked  at  these.  All  of 
these  five  truths  we  find  uttered  by  the 
Master,  and  uttered  again  in   later  time 


56  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

by  the  disciples  as  truths  now  known  to 
them  in  actual  experience. 

1.  The  relation  between  man  and  God 
which  Jesus  presented  as  the  right  relation 
has  come  to  be  experienced,  and  enters 
into  the  doctrine.  Jesus  the  Master  said, 
"  When  ye  pray,  say.  Our  Father  who  art 
in  heaven."  Paul  the  disciple  said,  out  of 
the  common  experience,  "We  have  not 
received  the  spirit  of  bondage,  again  unto 
fear,  but  we  have  received  the  spirit  of 
adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father." 
The  truth,  proclaimed  by  Jesus,  that  man 
may  enter  into  fdial  and  family  relations 
with  the  good  and  holy  God,  has  now  been 
experienced  by  the  Christian  people,  and 
has  come  forth  from  their  glad  filial  life  at 
home  with  God,  into  permanent  expres- 
sion. The  Christian  people  have  found 
the  secret  of  life,  in  finding  themselves 
sons  to  God.  This  experienced  relation  is 
the  fundamental  element  in  the  Christian 
life,  and   in  the    Christian  doctrine.     No 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  57 

one  title  represents  the  wliole  idea,  but  at 
the  centre  it  is  a  doctrine  of  the  Father- 
hood of  God. 

2.  The  significance  of  the  coming  and 
work  of  Jesus  himself  has  been  learned  by 
experience,  and  enters  into  the  doctrine. 
The  Master  said,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye 
that  labor  and  are  heavy-laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  Tlie  disciple,  speaking 
out  of  the  common  experience,  said, 
"Being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace 
with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
through  whom  we  have  had  our  access  by 
faith  into  this  grace  wherein  we  stand." 
To  tlie  early  church,  Christ  is  the  way, 
and  the  truth,  and  the  life.  He  has  laid 
down  his  life  for  the  sheep  as  the  true  and 
faithful  shepherd :  he  is  the  Saviour  of 
men,  able  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost 
who  come  unto  God  b}^  him.  His  place  is 
that  of  the  restorer,  tlie  bringer  of  men 
home  to  God,  the  one  in  whom  we  have 
our  spiritual  life  and  welfare.     This  rela- 


58  THE    CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

tion  between  Christ  and  men  is  not  a 
theoretical  one,  but  an  actual :  it  is  experi- 
enced, it  is  known  in  the  life.  Through 
the  Christian  experience  has  come  forth 
in  vital  power  the  doctrine  of  the  Saviour- 
hood  of  Jesus  Cln-ist. 

3.  The  Spirit  whom  Jesus  promised  has 
been  experienced  as  a  present  reality,  and 
this  reality  has  entered  into  doctrine. 
Jesus  said,  "  I  will  send  you  another 
Helper,  that  he  may  abide  with  3^ou  for- 
ever, even  the  Spirit  of  truth."  Paul 
responds,  out  of  the  common  experience, 
"The  Spirit  himself  bears  witness  with 
our  spirit,  that  we  are  children  of  God. 
As  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
they  are  God's  sons."  The  gift  of  the 
indwelling  divine  has  become  a  real  gift, 
blessedly  known  in  inward  experience,  and 
proved  by  its  fruits.  There  is  an  indwel- 
ling divine  which  is  the  inspiration  of 
faith  and  hope  and  love  to  the  Christian 
people,  and  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  found 


THE   CHRISTIAN-  DOCTRINE  59 

in  all  the  holy  graces.  The  Christian 
experience  has  created  tlie  doctrine  of  the 
reality  and  the  Friendhood  of  the  Spirit. 

4.  The  relation  between  man  and  man 
which  Jesus  presented  as  the  right  one  is 
a  relation  of  love  :  this  relation  has  begun 
to  be  realized,  and  enters  into  doctrine. 
Jesus  said,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Paul  answered, 
"  Now  abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  these 
three ;  and  the  greatest  of  these  is  love  "  : 
and  John,  "  Let  us  love  one  another,  for 
God  is  love."  Fellowship  is  the  sweet 
bond  of  a  living  unity  among  those  who 
have  learned  of  Jesus,  and  helpfulness  is 
the  Christian  badge.  Experience  has  made 
a  doctrine  of  tlie  Supremacy  of  Love. 

5.  The  high  ethical  demand  of  Jesus  is 
beginning  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  life  of  the 
Christian  people,  because  here  is  a  power 
that  can  f  alhl  it ;  and  the  attainableness  of 
moral  victory  has  entered   into  doctrine. 


60  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

Jesus  the  Master  said,  commanding  and 
promising  at  once,  "  Ye  shall  be  perfect, 
even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect." 
Paul  the  disciple  replies,  ''  The  law  of  the 
Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  has  delivered 
me  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death."  "  The 
fruit  of  the  light  is  in  all  goodness  and 
righteousness  and  truth."  In  Christ  good 
men  are  made.  He  required  goodness, 
after  the  pattern  and  inspiration  of  the 
eternal  good,  and  he  brings  it  to  pass, 
by  the  strong  holy  operation  of  the  in- 
dwelling Spirit.  In  the  Christian  holi- 
ness, imperfect  though  it  is,  that  goodness 
which  Christ  required  and  promised  is 
actually  emerging  in  the  world.  Promises 
to  "  him  that  overcometh "  will  in  due 
time  be  claimed.  What  should  enter  into 
doctrine  if  not  this?  Experience  has 
taught  the  church  to  hold  with  joy  the 
doctrine  of  the  Transforming  Power. 

All  this,  I  am  sure,  is  true.     Here  are 
five   great  realities   that   had   come  from 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  6 1 


Christ  into  experience,  and  come  from 
experience  to  be  assured  possessions  of 
the  Christian  people.  Five  great  realities : 
the  Fatherhood  of  God,  the  Saviourhood 
of  Jesus  CMst,  the  Friendhood  of  the 
Spirit,  the  Supremacy  of  Love,  and  the 
Transforming  Power.  The  assertion  of 
these  realities  forms  the  main  stock  of 
doctrine  in  the  early  Christianity.  I  doubt 
whether  there  were  any  other  truths  that 
deserve  to  rank  with  these,  though  doubt- 
less there  are  other  truths  implied  in  these. 
If  there  is  any  other  that  ranks  with  these, 
it  is  the  sublime  affirmation  of  immortality. 
This  was  not  exactly  a  truth  made  known 
by  Jesus,  or  a  possession  peculiar  to  his 
followers.  Yet  it  was  one  of  their  posses- 
sions, gained  as  their  own  in  fresh  fulness 
and  power  in  their  experience  with  him. 
One  element  in  that  inspiring  Christian 
life  which  made  existence  new  to  so  many 
of  the  poor  and  unfortunate  of  this  world 
was  the  exhilaration  that  came  with  the 


62  THE    CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

sense  of  deathlessness.  Men  now  expected 
to  live  forever,  continuing  in  Christ  liim- 
self,  and  with  him,  that  life  in  which  they 
were  now  most  blessed :  and  who  can 
wonder  that  the  world  was  new  ?  But  I 
think  the  sense  of  immortality  came  rather 
as  a  conclusion  or  corollary  from  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  than  as  a  primary  part  of  it ; 
and  I  think  that  the  Christian  doctrine 
itself,  defined  as  that  which  came  from 
Christ  by  way  of  experience,  and  was  held 
and  proclaimed  as  the  characteristic  truth 
of  Christianity,  consisted  chiefly  in  the 
affirmation  of  these  five  great  realities  as 
realities,  namely,  —  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  filial  life  with  him ;  the 
Saviourhood  of  Jesus  Christ  by  whom  we 
have  been  brought  home  to  God;  the 
Friendhood  of  the  Spirit  who  dwells  in 
us  ;  the  Supremacy  of  Love  as  the  law 
of  life  and  duty;  and  the  Transforming 
Power  of  the  divine  grace,  whereby  God 
is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above 


rilE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  6^ 

all  that  we  ask  or  think,  in  the  production 
of  real  goodness,  according  to  the  power 
that  is  at  work  in  us  already. 

Nov/  we  turn  to  another  part  of  our 
subject.  From  this  glorious  body  of  doc- 
trine, or  of  truth  experienced,  began  the 
long  history  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  con- 
tinuing till  now.  About  this  I  must  say 
two  or  three  things,  important  to  the 
present  purpose. 

I  need  not  show  that  the  history  of 
Christian  doctrine  will  be  a  history  of 
divine  realities,  handled  by  human  thought. 
Here  again,  the  divine  seed  is  cast  forth 
into  the  field  of  the  world,  to  be  received 
as  it  may  by  the  soil  that  awaits  it  and 
the  influences  that  are  around.  Human 
thought  deals  with  the  divine  realities  as 
it  can.  God's  truth  takes  its  chances  of 
being  fairly  or  unfairly  considered,  wisely 
or  unwisely  interpreted,  rightly  or  wrongly 
grouped.     The  result  must  be  a  mixed  re- 


64  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

suit,  noble  but  imperfect.  Any  one  who 
expects  the  Christian  doctrine  at  any  given 
time  to  be  wholly  clear,  consistent,  and 
harmonious  with  the  mind  of  God,  has 
not  considered  the  whole  case.  When 
divine  realities  are  handled  by  human 
thought,  we  can  predict  a  mixed  result, 
noble  but  imperfect,  and  imperfect  in  a 
multitude  of  ways. 

See  how  variation  comes  in.  There  is 
an  open  door  for  it  at  once,  and  in  it 
comes.  The  open  door  for  variation  is 
explanation.  The  great  primary  element 
in  the  doctrine  is  not  explanation,  or 
theory,  but  assertion,  the  assertion  of  the 
reality.  The  church  proclaims  that  God 
is  our  Father,  that  Christ  is  our  Saviour, 
that  the  Spirit  is  the  indwelling  Friend, 
that  love  is  the  law  of  life,  that  victory  is 
possible.  The  strength  and  vigor  of  the 
doctrine  lies  in  the  confident  holding  and 
affirmation  of  these  realities.  As  long  as 
the    Christian   people   are   firmly  holding 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  65 

these  things  for  true,  so  long  is  the  doc- 
trine a  living  and  glowing  thing,  compe- 
tent to  win  its  way  by  inherent  energy. 
But  it  seems  inevitable  that  efforts  should 
be  made  to  explain  these  great  realities, 
to  account  for  them  to  the  judgment  of 
man,  to  tell  just  how  and  why  they  are 
true.  No  one  can  say  that  this  tendency 
is  wrong.  The  things  of  God  are  infi- 
nitely worthy  of  the  thought  of  man,  and 
it  is  a  liigh  human  glory  to  gaze  into  them 
and  seek  to  understand.  But  who  does 
not  see  that  variety  of  views  will  come 
in,  as  soon  as  the  effort  to  explain  is 
made  ?  Minds,  tempers,  training,  degrees 
of  sympathy,  opportunities  to  know,  abili- 
ties for  understanding,  power  of  expres- 
sion, all  differ,  and  variation  in  doctrine 
is  inevitable,  when  once  the  enterprise 
of  explanation  has  been  launched. 

All   the  more  because  of  another  ten- 
dency, namely,  the  tendency  to  regard  the 
explanation  that  is  reached   as   part  and 
5 


66  THE    CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

parcel  of  the  doctrine  itself,  thenceforth 
inseparable  from  it.  By  virtue  of  this 
tendency,  with  which  we  are  all  familiar, 
every  inquirer  as  to  the  how  and  the 
wherefore  of  the  divine  realities  becomes 
himself  a  contributor  to  the  substance  of 
the  doctrine.  The  legislature  makes  the 
law,  but  the  court  interprets  it ;  and  the 
court's  interpretation  is  accepted  as  part 
and  parcel  of  the  law.  So,  given  the  di- 
vine reality,  fascinating  in  its  mysterious- 
nes3,  and  the  explanation  or  theory  of  it 
that  is  accepted  becomes  attached  to  the 
reality  as  a  part  of  it.  The  theory  may 
be  good  or  bad,  vv^ise  or  foolish,  it  makes 
no  difference.  The  holder  of  the  theory 
calls  it  the  doctrine,  always,  and  to  him 
the  two  are  one.  But  when  there  are 
many  inquirers,  all  fascinated  by  the  glory 
of  God  in  his  truth,  and  all  sincerely  ex- 
plaining its  mysteries  as  best  they  may, 
variation  in  doctrine  needs  not  to  be  an- 
nounced, for  it  will  come,  welcome  or  un- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  6/ 

welcome,  and  will  come  to  stay.  If  my 
neiglibor  and  I,  believing,  for  example,  in 
the  transforming  power  and  the  victorious 
holiness,  investigate  the  mode  and  means 
of  the  victory,  and  he  reaches  one  concep- 
tion and  I  another,  then  to  each  of  us  the 
doctrine  will  consist  of  the  great  reality 
plus  his  own  explanation  of  it,  and  there 
will  be  two  doctrines  of  holiness,  one  his 
and  one  mine. 

I  do  not  think  for  a  moment  that  this 
process  can  be  avoided.  This  is  a  part  of 
that  inevitable  to  which  divine  realities 
submit  themselves  when  they  are  handled 
by  hum.an  thought.  I  am  simply  calling 
attention  to  the  inevitableness  of  variation 
in  Christian  doctrine,  and  of  the  entrance 
of  inferior  forms  of  doctrine  by  the  side  of 
better  forms.  Judgments  that  are  partial, 
one-sided,  temporary,  provisional,  are  cer- 
tain to  be  formed,  and  for  the  time  to  be 
held  tenaciously  as  the  only  true  :  but  with 
tlie  lapse  of  time  men  will  be  called  to 


68  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

abandon  them,  however  reluctantly,  in 
favor  of  other  views  that  are  truer,  even 
though  these  in  turn  are  still  imperfect. 
All  this  is  inevitable,  when  divine  realities 
are  handled  by  human  thought.  There  was 
no  way  to  keep  Christian  doctrine  from 
variation,  except  to  keep  thought  away 
from  it ;  and  that  is  not  God's  way  with 
his  creatures.  So  we  must  not  be  scanda- 
lized if  we  find  the  Christian  doctrine 
changing  its  forms,  and  seeming  some- 
times contradictory  and  inconsistent  with 
itself ;  nor  should  we  be  too  superior  if 
we  watch  this  process  from  the  point  of 
view  of  science.  It  is  the  common  lot. 
The  Christian  truth  has  fared  as  all  other 
truth  has  fared,  when  human  thought  dealt 
with  it. 

If  we  wish  to  understand  the  Cliristian 
doctrine,  there  is  another  aspect  of  its 
history  for  us  to  consider.  It  is  important 
that   wo  notice  through   what   inilucnces 


THE    CIIRISriAN  DOCTRINE  69 

the  doctrine  of  the  early  past  has  come 
clown  to  the  present.  I  have  spoken  of 
the  certainty  of  variation  and  conflicting 
forms :  a  few  words  now  about  the  influ- 
ences throuo-h  which  the  course  of  the 
history  of  the  Christian  doctrine  has  run. 
Three  cfreat  influences  have  touched  the 
doctrine,  modifying  it  for  good  and  for 
evil. 

The  first  was  philosophy.  It  was  Greek 
philosophy  that  first  laid  its  hand  upon 
the  Christian  doctrine.  The  philosopher 
gained  a  standing  among  the  exponents  of 
the  faith  and  the  interpreters  of  the  doc- 
trine, and  kept  his  standing  long.  It 
could  not  have  been  otherwise,  and  it  is 
vain  to  wish  it  might  have  been  otherwise. 
The  period  of  philosophy  was  a  normal 
and  worthy  stage  in  the  life  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  needful  help  was  given  by 
philosophy  at  a  time  when  nothing  else 
would  do.  But  Dr.  Edwin  Hatch  was 
right  when  he  called  attention  to  the  deep 


70  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

contrast  between  the  Sermon  on  the  IMount 
and  the  Nicene  Creed.  The  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  is  direct,  simple,  practical, 
religious :  the  Nicene  Creed  is  metaphys- 
ical, abstract,  inferential,  non-ethical, 
theological.  One  sprang  from  the  mind 
and  heart  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  other  from 
theological  inquiry  and  controversy  among 
his  followers.  One  was  intended  to  set 
forth  the  living  truth  concerning  God  and 
man  :  the  other,  to  guard  the  truth  that 
had  been  accepted,  and  shut  out  those  who 
could  not  join  in  reciting  this  statement  of 
it.  The  contrast  is  both  sharp  and  deep, 
and  there  are  many  other  illustrations  as 
clear  and  keen  as  this. 

The  effect  of  philosophy  upon  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  as  this  illustration  shows, 
was  to  elaborate  it.  That  process  of  iden- 
tifying the  interpretation  with  the  doc- 
trine, of  which  we  spoke,  had  now  its 
apotheosis.  Metaphysical  discussion  took 
hold   upon   implied    points,    and   brought 


THE    CHRISTIAN-  DOCTRINE  J\ 

them  to  the  surface,  and  set  them  at  the 
front.  It  called  attention  to  implied  con- 
nections of  thought,  and  insisted  upon 
filling  out  a  consistent  statement  of  the 
underlying  assumptions.  In  this  way  it 
added  to  the  points  of  doctrine.  It  mul- 
tiplied largely  the  matters  which  it  was 
held,  important  to  believe.  We  may 
almost  say  that  philosophy  took  a  simple 
faith,  and  left  an  elaborate  system  of 
belief.  It  added  to  the  bulk  of  doctrine, 
but  not  to  its  vitality  or  working  vigor. 
Thus  the  doctrine  passed  through  a  period 
of  large  elaboration  in  the  schools  of 
thought :  and  the  effect  still  remains  upon 
it.  The  simplest  Christian  of  to-day  in- 
herits, in  the  teaching  that  he  receives, 
something  from  the  Greek  philosophy. 

Next  comes  organization.  After  the 
Roman  empire  had  fallen,  there  rose  the 
new  Roman  empire,  the  imperial  church. 
The  church  as  an  institution  now  obtained 
standing,  not  only  as  an  exponent  of  the 


72  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

faith  and  an  interpreter  of  the  doctrine, 
but  by  and  by  as  the  sole  exponent  and 
interpreter.  There  was  now  a  great  gov- 
ernmental system,  in  which  the  sacrament- 
working  element  was  the  dominant  force. 
Sacramentahsm  and  governmentalism  go 
naturally  together :  and  in  the  middle 
ages  all  influences  conspired  to  hold  the 
church  in  the  rank  and  place  of  authority 
in  the  field  of  doctrine.  There  was  now 
an  organization  that  claimed  the  right  to 
guide  the  doctrine,  and  finally  the  right  to 
determine  it,  by  authority  from  above. 

The  effect  of  organization  upon  the 
Christian  doctrine  was  to  formalize  it. 
Inheriting  much  from  the  metaphysical 
period  that  preceded,  the  church  went  on 
to  build  the  doctrine  into  a  scholastic 
S3^stem,  philosophy  and  organization  now 
conspiring  to  introduce  method  and  com- 
pleteness as  the  type-giving  idea.  Out  of 
the  sacramental  system,  too,  grew  a  regu- 
lar system  of  straightforward  doctrine,  set- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  73 

ting  forth  the  authority  of  the  church  and 
the  way  of  salvation  tlirough  the  churchly 
ministries.  Tlie  vast  weight  of  organiza- 
tion was  a  burden  upon  the  doctrine  of 
Christianity,  as  well  as  upon  the  Christian 
life  :  flexibility  was  discouraged,  rigidity 
was  favored,  by  the  existing  conditions. 
The  system  has  grown,  until  the  head  of 
the  organization  stands  as  the  infallible 
teacher,  and  the  doctrine  is  solely  as  he 
proclaims  or  sanctions  it.  Organization 
has  been  the  formalizer  of  doctrine.  In 
the  love  for  system  and  the  leaning  on 
authority,  all  our  modern  theology  inherits 
something  from  the  great  formalizing 
organization  of  the  middle  ages. 

Last  of  the  three  stands  individualism. 
In  the  modern  age,  from  the  sixteenth 
century  on,  Christianity  has  had  to  do 
with  the  intense  individualism  that  has 
given  character  to  the  west.  The  Refor- 
mation of  the  sixteenth  century  was  the 
blossoming-out  of  individualism,  the  emerg- 


74  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

ing  of  personal  freedom  and  responsibility 
from  beneath  the  churchly  sway,  the  estab- 
lishing of  free  and  active  thought  as  the 
method  and  activity  of  the  age.  In  our 
part  of  the  world,  Christianity  has  been 
under  this  influence  now  for  four  cen- 
turies. 

I  am  at  a  loss  for  a  single  word  to  de- 
scribe the  effect  of  the  modern  individual- 
ism upon  the  Cliristian  doctrine,  and  yet 
the  effect  is  plain  enough.  In  the  age  of 
individualism  the  interest  in  the  bringing- 
out  of  doctrine  has  certainly  increased, 
and  the  doctrine  has  grown  sharp  and 
intense.  The  individualizing  impulse  is 
full  of  life :  it  imparts  freshness,  courage, 
vigor,  hopefulness,  to  all  intellectual  en- 
deavor. The  impulse  of  the  Reformation 
has  stimulated  the  investigation  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  and  thrown  abundant  life  into 
the  study  of  the  doctrine.  But  it  has  also 
led  to  division  and  variety,  beyond  all  pre- 
cedent.    It  has  differentiated  and  diversi- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  75 

fied  doctrine,  and  scattered  it,  and  broken 
it  into  fragments.  Why  not  ?  When  we 
are  all  free  to  think,  and  all  do  think, 
each  one  just  as  he  is,  with  his  own  outfit 
of  powers  and  training,  how  can  all  think 
alike  ?  If  we  interpret  the  Christian  real- 
ities each  in  his  own  way,  we  shall  differ 
in  our  results.  And  if,  as  the  case  has 
been,  our  individualism  takes  form  in  a 
host  of  organizations,  each  deeming  itself 
set  for  the  defence  of  some  view  of  the 
doctrine,  then  all  the  more  certainly  will 
the  doctrine  be  diversified  and  scattered 
into  portions.  Still  more  will  this  come 
to  pass  when  the  age  of  individualism 
inherits  from  the  methods  of  pliilosophy 
and  the  habits  of  a  scholastic  period.  The 
church  of  Rome  is  riglit  when  it  tells 
us  that  our  Protestantism  does  not  tend 
to  intellectual  agreement.  The  more  seri- 
ous and  interesting  the  matters  that  we 
inquire  about,  the  less  likely  are  we  to 
reach  identity  in  the  result.     The  modern 


76  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


individualism  lias  added  immensely  to  the 
eneroy  of  thought  upon  the  Christian  doc- 
trine, but  not  as  yet  has  it  brought  unity 
in  conclusions:  nor  will  it  bring  such 
unity,  except  by  the  aid  of  more  spiritual 
influences.  It  has  been  a  quickener  of 
doctrine,  but  a  divider  also. 

I  have  spoken  long  enough  of  the  road 
over  which  the  Christian  doctrine  has 
come  down  to  us  from  its  far  beginnings. 
Divine  reality,  thrown  into  the  living  ex- 
perience of  the  Christian  people,  has  been 
to  them  the  theme  of  thought.  The  actual 
reality  has  been  largely  the  same  to  them 
all,  but  difference  and  variety  in  views  of 
it  have  followed,  by  an  absolute  necessity. 
The  doctrine  has  been  elaborated  by  phil- 
osophy, formalized  by  organization,  and 
quickened  but  diversified  by  individual- 
ism, and  at  last,  out  of  the  long  process,  it 
has  come  down  to  us,  and  stands  before  us 
to  be  estimated  as  to  its  value.     What  is 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  y/ 

its  present  wortli?  How  well  and  justly 
does  it  represent  those  divine  realities 
with  which  it  started  ?  Can  we  point  to  it 
as  helpful  to  the  purpose  of  our  apolo- 
getics? Is  it  worthy  to  stand  as  a  com- 
mendation of  Christianity?  Is  it  a  real 
help  in  our  presentation  of  our  religion  to 
the  world?  Wherein  does  it  need  im- 
provement? and  can  we  do  anything  to 
add  to  its  quality  and  power?  All  these 
questions  we  have  a  right  to  ask,  and  to 
them  we  desire  a  true  answer. 

That  Christian  doctrine  concerning 
which  we  now  make  these  inquiries  is  of 
course  the  resultant  from  all  the  past. 
We  inherit  from  all  our  predecessors.  On 
every  point  of  doctrinal  belief,  the  popular 
thought  of  to-day  inherits  more  or  less 
from  all  past  theories  and  interpretations. 
Our  present  Christian  doctrine  contains 
the  old  and  ever  new  divine  realities,  and 
it  contains  the  many  and  various  results 
of  the  handling  of  them  by  human  thought. 


78  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


All  togetlier  these  elements,  various  and 
incongruous,  have  come  clown  to  us.  It 
could  not  be  otherwise,  and  it  is  vain  for 
us  to  imagine  that  it  has  been  otherwise. 
We  have  not  merely  what  our  Master 
taught,  but  what  the  mighty  past  has 
given  us. 

This  statement  sounds  to  some,  I  doubt 
not,  as  if  I  felt  constrained  chiefly  to 
acknowledge  the  faults  of  the  process,  and 
to  confess  the  defilements  that  have  come 
from  the  touch  of  man  upon  the  divine 
realities.  But  it  is  not  so.  I  do  not  feel 
constrained  to  set  the  faults  in  any  such 
rank.  I  see  a  wonder  on  the  other  side. 
The  first  thing  that  I  have  to  say  about 
the  present  Christian  doctrine  is  that  the 
divine  realities  are  still  here.  They  have 
come  down  to  us.  They  live,  and  have 
their  power.  The  realities  that  composed 
the  Christian  doctrine  at  the  beginning 
compose  it  now.  All  the  explaining  and 
difference  and  variation,  all  the  elaborating 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  79 


by  philosophy  and  formalizing  by  churchly 
organization  and  scattering  by  modern 
thought,  has  not  destroyed  them  as  the 
treasure  of  the  Christian  people.  Still  do 
these  same  divine  realities  hold  their  place 
as  the  centre  and  substance  of  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine. 

Do  you  say  that  I  cannot  prove  it?  It  is 
true  that  it  is  not  a  matter  for  demonstra- 
tion, but  it  is  a  matter  for  affirmation  that 
cannot  be  successfully  challenged.  If  I 
were  asked  as  an  observer  of  my  own  time 
what  are  the  essential  elements  in  the 
Christian  doctrine  as  it  now  exists,  what 
should  I  say?  What  ought  I  to  say? 
What  would  any  well-informed  man  say  ? 
I  should  say  that  first  of  all  it  is  held  by 
the  Christian  people  that  in  Christ  the 
true  and  right  relation  between  man  and 
God,  the  relation  of  children  with  their 
father,  is  realized.  I  should  say  that  the 
Christians  still  claim  to  be  living  in  son- 
ship  to  God,  according  to  the  teaching  of 


80  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

Jesus,  and  that  this  experience  is  their 
glor}^  I  should  even  say  that  the  fulness 
of  the  meaning  of  God's  fatherhood  is  now 
dawning  with  unprecedented  power  upon 
the  Christian  people.  I  should  saj  next, 
that  Christians  hold  unshakenly  to  the 
Saviourhood  of  Jesus  Clirist.  He  it  is 
that  has  brought  them  home  to  God  and 
introduced  them  to  that  filial  life  in  which 
they  rest  and  are  strong.  In  his  wonderful 
mission  and  life,  culminating  in  his  wonder- 
ful death  so  rich  in  sacrifice,  the  Christian 
people  find  the  way  of  their  salvation.  I 
should  say  further  that  the  Christian 
people  experience  and  acknowledge  the 
Friendhood  of  the  holy  indwelling  Spirit. 
They  still  declare  their  experience  and 
belief  of  a  present  God,  a  God  within 
them,  renewing,  transforming,  strengthen- 
ing, fulfilling  in  actual  life  the  saving  pur- 
pose of  Jesus  Christ.  I  should  say  that 
the  Christians  hold,  thoup'h  all  of  them 
imperfectly,  to  the  supremacy  of  love  as 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  8 1 

the  ruling  and  decisive  element  in  all  true 
character.  The  experimental  presence  and 
possession  of  a  noble  and  self-forgetful 
love  is  nothing  unknown,  or  even  rare, 
among  the  Christian  people,  and  the  ideal 
of  excellence  among  them  is  the  character 
that  is  crowned  by  love  in  its  purest  and 
sweetest  forms.  And  I  should  affirm  that 
the  Christian  people  hold  that  in  Christ 
there  is  a  genuine  transforming  power,  a 
power  of  God  unto  salvation,  able  to  pro- 
duce a  successful  holiness.  They  believe 
that  through  Christ  it  is  possible  for  men 
to  be  cleansed  of  their  actual  evil,  not 
merely  in  some  theoretical  and  suppositi- 
tious way,  but  really  and  forever,  and 
brought  to  actual  and  positive  holiness  in 
the  sight  of  God.  And  if  the  affirmation 
of  immortality  be  considered  an  essentia.1 
part  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  then  I 
should  add  that  the  present  Christian  peo- 
ple hold  to  immortality  as  their  human 
birthright  and  their  Christian  inheritance, 
6 


82  THE    CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

and  live  in  the  light  of  the  immortal 
hope. 

Here  are  all  the  essential  realities  of  the 
primitive  Christian  doctrine ;  and  I  affirm 
that  they  are  held  as  facts  of  life  and  ex- 
perience now,  and  proclaimed  as  present 
doctrine.  After  all  the  centuries  they  are 
here,  in  vitality  and  power,  holding  the 
place  in  the  church  that  they  held  at  first. 
They  constitute  the  doctrine,  too,  not  of 
some  small  part  of  the  Christian  people, 
but  of  the  mass.  I  have  not  recited  the 
creed  of  some  sect,  I  have  uttered  the  doc- 
trine of  Christendom.  I  have  spoken  the 
ecumenical  creed. 

After  what  has  been  said,  no  one  will 
suppose  that  I  am  claiming  for  this  primi- 
tive and  ecumenical  doctrine  a  perfect,  an 
ideal,  a  satisfactory  hold  upon  the  Chris- 
tian people.  Most  freely  do  I  confess  to 
serious  imperfections  in  the  holding  of  this 
noble  sum  of  Christian  doctrine.  What 
would  you  expect  ?     Have  not  the  divine 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  83 

realities  come  down,  tlirouo-h  acres  of 
human  handling,  to  the  hands  of  a  genera- 
tion as  imperfect  as  any  of  its  predeces- 
sors ?  Defects  ?  Certainly,  they  are  here. 
The  most  exacting  parts  of  the  doctrine 
are  held  least  satisfactorily,  as  they  always 
have  been.  The  Christian  people  are  still 
too  unwilling  to  let  their  doctrine  have  its 
way  with  their  lives,  and  exercise  upon 
them  its  searching  and  cleansing  power. 
They  still  have  much  to  learn  as  to  the 
simplicity,  the  meaning,  and  the  vitality 
of  what  they  believe.  Nowhere,  either,  is 
the  whole  equally  well  believed  and  illus- 
trated ;  for  one  side  is  seen  and  received 
more  clearly  in  one  quarter  and  another 
in  another,  even  as  it  has  always  been. 
Moreover,  in  the  long  course  of  transmis- 
sion the  doctrine  has  become  far  too  vari- 
ous and  far  too  complicated.  Around  each 
one  of  the  great  divine  realities  there  has 
gathered  a  mass  of  differing  and  conflict- 
ing interpretations ;  and  still  the  practice 


84  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


persists  of  confounding  these   interpreta- 
tions with  the  divine  reality  itself.     Thus 
the  people's  minds  are  burdened  with   a 
superfluous  mass   of  what  they  sincerely 
believe   to  be  Christian  doctrine,  but   of 
what  belongs  outside  the  central  field  and 
ought  to  be  separated  from  the  essential 
matter.     There  often  appears  to  be  deep 
and  irreconcilable   conflict  between  those 
who  hold  the  reality  in  common ;  yet  the 
conflict  relates  to  the  explanation  of  the 
reality,  not  to  the  reality  itself.     There  is 
great  need  of  learning  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  realities  that  the  Christian  doc- 
trine affirms  and  the  exjjlanations  of  them 
in  which  the  history  of  doctrine  abounds. 
All  these  things,  and  doubtless  more,  must 
be  acknowledged  by  way  of  defect  in  the 
holding  of  the  Christian  doctrine  by  the 
Christian  people  of  to-day.     Nevertheless, 
when  all  the  defects  have  been  freely  ad- 
mitted, I  still  affirm  that  the  great  divine 
realities  that  made  up  the  Christian  doc- 


THE    CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  85 

trine  in  the  beginning  make  up  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  now.  I  declare  that  the 
Christian  people  throughout  the  world  are 
believing  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  the 
Saviourhood  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Friend- 
hood  of  the  Spirit,  the  supremacy  of  love, 
and  the  reality  of  the  transforming  power 
of  the  divine  grace.  They  diverge  widely 
in  their  explanation  of  these  facts,  and  in 
the  views  that  they  associate  with  them ; 
they  differ  widely  in  the  forms  of  expe- 
rience to  which  these  facts  give  rise ;  but 
in  the  facts  themselves  they  all  believe,  and 
it  is  this  belief  that  makes  them  Christians. 
And  this  presence  in  the  world  of  the 
original  body  of  Cln?istian  doctrine,  exist- 
ing still  not  in  theory  alone  but  in  experi- 
ence as  an  inspiring  and  renewing  force, 
I  hail  with  joy  as  a  proof  of  the  presence 
of  God  in  the  history  of  mankind. 

I  am  well  aware  that  there  are  many 
who  make  little  account  of  the  presence 


86  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


of  this  body  of  central  doctrine.  From 
two  quarters  I  may  be  criticised  for  setting 
it  forth  as  so  important  a  thing.  An 
objector,  from  without  the  Christian  circle, 
may  say,  "  Ah,  but  this  is  not  Christianity. 
Historically,  Christianity  includes  a  thou- 
sand varieties,  so  many  and  so  mutually 
contradictory  that  one  cannot  even  deter- 
mine what  it  claims  to  be.  You  may  find 
a  few  peculiarities  in  common,  as  you  are 
doing  now,  but  that  is  of  no  consequence. 
The  historical  Christian  doctrine  is  a  far 
more  complex  and  difficult  thing  than  this, 
and  it  is  not  a  fact  that  the  whole  can  be 
gathered  up  into  a  few  statements."  And 
some  earnest  soul  within  the  Christian 
circle  may  perhaps  unwittingly  join  hands 
with  the  objector  from  without,  when  he 
hears  so  short  a  creed  pronounced,  and  one 
that  does  not  contain  some  theories  or 
explanations  that  seem  to  him  to  be  of  the 
first  importance.  "Of  what  avail,"  he 
may  say,  "is  the  common  acceptance  of 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  8/ 

a  few  mere  central  facts,  when  almost  all 
who  are  said  to  accept  them  are  wrong  in 
their  understanding  of  them?  Agreement 
on  facts  that  are  variously  understood  is 
only  the  shadow  of  agreement.  The  sub- 
stance of  asrreement  lies  in  the  understand- 
ing  of  the  facts,  and  unity  in  this  is 
wanting.  So  what  is  the  use  of  proclaim- 
ing as  ecumenical  doctrine  a  body  of 
realities  that  all  interpret  differently,  and 
the  most  misinterpret?  " 

But  I  think  I  have  been  right  in  my 
statement  of  what  the  Christian  doctrine 
really  is,  namely,  that  it  consists  in  divine 
realities  handled  by  human  thought.  This 
ought  to  dispose  of  the  first  objection.  If 
this  is  true,  the  objector  ought  not  to  be 
asking  that  we  take  all  the  variations  of 
doctrine  into  the  common  stock  and  insist 
upon  holding  them  all  as  a  part  of  our 
present  Christianity.  It  is  somewhat  like 
asking  that  the  present  science  of  physics 
or  chemistry  should  include  all  the  theories 


88  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

of  past  days,  or  that  philosophy  herself 
should  muster  her  dead  along  with  her 
living,  and  defend  the  views  of  her  former 
magnates  as  adequate  to  the  present  time. 
Let  us  have  sense.  If  we  have  the  origi- 
nal and  abiding  realities  of  the  Christian 
faith  held  to-day  as  Christian  doctrine,  we 
have  what  all  our  fathers  have  had,  in 
every  generation;  and  if  we  interpret 
them  variously  among  ourselves  and  differ 
in  our  conception  of  them,  we  do  what  all 
our  fathers  did,  and  what  all  oUr  children 
must  do,  as  long  as  it  is  the  nature  of  man 
to  know  in  part.  Christianity  consisted  at 
first  in  certain  great  abiding  facts  of 
spiritual  life  and  experience.  It  consists 
now  in  the  same.  There  have  been  a 
thousand  thoughts  and  theories  about  it, 
that  enter  into  the  history  of  it  but  form 
no  permanent  part  of  it,  and  we  are  by  no 
means  bound  to  reckon  them  all  in  when 
we  wish  to  know  what  the  Christian  doc- 
trine really  is.     And  the  same  answer  may 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  89 

serve  when  we  meet  the  objection  that 
comes  from  within  the  Christian  circle. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  find  my 
theory  of  the  manner  of  the  Saviourhood 
of  Christ,  for  example,  accepted  in  the 
universal  thought  of  Christendom,  in  order 
for  me  to  perceive,  and  to  rejoice,  that  all 
Christendom  believes  in  the  Saviourhood 
of  Christ.  My  theory  of  that  great  reality 
is  the  best  that  I  can  form  at  present,  but 
it  certainly  is  not  faultless.  If  my  theory 
of  the  Saviourhood  of  Christ  must  be 
accepted  in  order  for  men  to  be  saved, 
most  Christians  would  be  lost,  for  the 
most  have  not  accepted  it.  What  is  true 
of  my  theory  is  true  of  j^ours,  whatever  it 
may  be.  There  is  no  one  explanation  of 
that  great  reality  upon  which  most  of  those 
who  have  trusted  in  Christ  for  salvation 
have  aofreed.  So  p-reat  a  fact  is  sure  to 
have  its  many  interpretations,  differing  as 
minds  differ ;  and  those  who  find  eternal 
life  in  the  Saviourhood  of  Christ  may  well 


90  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

rejoice  that  those  who  understand  it  differ- 
ently from  them  find  eternal  life  in  it  too. 
We  are  all  pupils  in  the  school  of  Christ, 
handling  divine  realities  in  human  thought 
that  is  half-trained  and  half-sanctified  at 
the  best,  and  our  interpretations  are  like 
those  of  our  fathers,  neither  full  nor  final. 
And  so  we  are  confirmed  in  thinking  that 
the  great  experimental  realities  of  Chris- 
tianity provide  the  genuine  abiding  ele- 
ments in  the  Christian  doctrine.  Through 
these  comes  the  life  in  which  Christianity 
consisted  at  first  and  consists  always. 
And  these  central  verities  do  certainly 
form  the  heart  of  the  universal  Christian 
doctrine  as  it  is  held  to-day.  They  are 
now  experienced,  and  now  proclaimed  as 
verities  that  Christ  brought  near  and 
experience  has  confirmed. 

Of  the  now-existing  Christian  doctrine, 
therefore,  I  am  by  no  means  ashamed.  I 
am  not  here  to  apologize  for  it.  It  is  the 
most  precious  of  the  products  of  tlic  past. 


THE    CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  9 1 

In  the  mission  of  Christ,  God  sent  it  forth 
into  the  world,  and  the  long  movement  of 
history  has  borne  it  on  to  us.  I  wish  that 
it  were  better  understood  in  its  simplicity ; 
I  wish  that  preachers  might  learn  to  dis- 
tinguish between  it  and  what  surrounds 
it ;  I  wish  that  it  were  held  by  the  Chris- 
tian people  with  better  conviction  and 
more  faithful  obedience  to  its  supreme 
demands.  There  are  conceptions  and  pre- 
sentations of  it  for  which  I  might  be  con- 
strained to  apologize,  if  the  occasion  arose. 
But  of  the  Christian  doctrine  itself  I  am 
not  ashamed,  and  for  it  I  have  no  apologies 
to  offer.  It  was  a  great  gift  of  God  at 
fust,  and  it  remains  a  great  and  worthy 
gift  of  God  to-day.  If  those  who  hold  it 
can  but  walk  worthy  of  it,  and  commend 
it  to  general  confidence  by  their  proclama- 
tion of  its  truths,  the  whole  world  will 
have  reason  to  thank  God  for  it  as  a  pres- 
ent gift  of  blessing. 


92  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


What  can  we  do  for  the  Christian  doc- 
trine, we  may  ask,  to  render  it  more  effec- 
tive in  the  present  world?  What  can  be 
done  for  it  must  be  done  mainly  through 
the  Christian  people ;  and  the  need  of  the 
Christian  people  with  reference  to  their 
doctrine  lies  just  where  our  present  course 
of  thought  is  leading  us.  The  exceeding 
preciousness  and  the  supreme  value  of  this 
central  body  of  experimental  truth,  —  this 
is  what  the  Christian  people  need  to  learn. 
The  permanent  element  in  the  doctrine 
consists  in  the  declaration  of  the  great 
experimental  truths:  the  changing  and 
passing  element  consists  in  the  various 
interpretations  of  those  truths,  made  from 
time  to  time  in  human  thought.  We  are 
so  devoted  to  the  interpretations  that  we 
often  lose  our  sense  of  the  vitality  of  the 
facts.  We  need  to  be  called  back  to  the 
realities,  where  the  power  dwells.  I  well 
remember  how  like  a  cobweb-brushing 
breeze   a  statement    of    the   late   Robert 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  93 


William    Dale    many    years     ago    swept 
through  my  mind.     It  stood  at  the  front 
of  a  treatise  of  his  upon  the  Atonement, 
which  I  was  beginning  to  read.     "  It  is  not 
the  doctrine  of  the  death  of  Christ  that 
atones  for  human  sin,  but  the  death  itself." 
That  power  resides  in  a  reality,  and  not  in 
any  doctrine  of  a  reality,  —  this,  it  would 
seem,  I  might  have  known  before,  so  sim- 
ple is  it,  and  so  obviously  true.     We  need 
to  see  it   concerning   the   whole  body  of 
Christian  doctrine.     Theories  and  explana- 
tions of  the  great  realities  we  must  form, 
and  hold,   always   hoping   to  correct  and 
enrich  them   as   we   go   on.     No   one   is 
asking   us   to   lay  them  down  and  leave 
them,  for  that  to  most  of  us  is  impossible. 
But  it  is  in  the  good  God  our  Father,  not 
in  any  doctrine  of  his  Fatherhood,  that  we 
have  our  filial  life  at  home  with  him.     It 
is  by  our  living  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  that 
we  are  brought  home  to  God,  not  through 
some  doctrine  of  him,  or  some  doctrine  of 


94  T^HE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


the  manner  of  his  Saviourhood.  It  is  the 
indwelling  Spirit  himself  that  helps  our 
weakness,  and  we  are  strengthened  by  his 
real  touch,  not  by  a  doctrine  of  the  Spirit, 
or  of  his  personality,  or  of  his  relations 
in  the  Godhead.  It  is  by  love,  and  not 
by  a  doctrine  of  love,  that  we  are  to  prove 
ourselves  Christians.  The  experience  of 
the  transforming  power  is  what  we  want, 
and  without  this  ever  so  good  a  theory  of 
the  transforming  power  is  powerless.  If 
we  attain  to  such  a  view  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  as  this,  we  can  declare  that  the 
great  realities  are  quick  and  powerful  now, 
as  confidently  and  strongly  as  could  the 
apostles  themselves  when  the  faith  was 
new. 

I  count  upon  two  helps  toward  a  better 
conception  of  the  Christian  doctrine.  I 
expect  valuable  help  from  the  clear  and 
straightforward  thinking  that  is  character- 
istic of  the  best  intellectual  work  of  our 
time.     It  is  necessary  that  the  Christian 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  95 

people  learn  to  distinguish  things  that 
differ,  and  thus  get  their  doctrine  clear  of 
complication  with  what  does  not  belong  to 
it.  In  this  they  need  to  learn  from  such 
intellectual  work  as  is  done  in  this  uni- 
versity, and  wherever  men  set  themselves 
to  the  task  of  clear  thinldng  and  discern- 
ment of  things  as  they  are.  Help  us,  I 
say  to-day  as  I  said  yesterday.  Go  on 
with  clear  thinking.  Establish  the  right 
way  of  mental  work  as  the  only  way  that 
shall  be  welcome  anywhere.  Illustrate 
sound,  strong  thinking  for  us,  until  it  shall 
be  a  matter  of  course  that  we  must  make 
it  our  own.  Make  it  impossible  for  us  to 
live  thinking  confusedly  and  incorrectly. 
Every  advance  in  good  intellectual  practice 
helps  Christian  doctrine  toward  the  day  of 
disentanglement  and  independence.  It 
leads  on  toward  the  time  when  the  Chris- 
tian realities  shall  be  distinguished  in  all 
minds  from  theories  concerning  them,  and 
the  power  of  the  divine  reality  can  go  forth 


g6  THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

in  its   simplicity  to  influence   minds  pre- 
pared to  receive  it. 

The  other  help  that  I  count  upon  can 
come  only  from  within  the  Christian  peo- 
ple. There  is  nothing  but  religious  life 
that  can  most  powerfully  strengthen  the 
cause  of  religion  in  the  world.  It  is  life 
that  begets  life.  Only  the  genuine  experi- 
ence of  the  divine  grace  and  life,  —  such 
experience  as  the  first  Christians  had,  and 
all  the  best  of  their  successors,  —  only  this 
can  bring  the  help  that  is  most  needful. 
But  I  see  it  coming.  Already,  in  our  own 
time,  we  find  a  fresh  insistence  upon  gen- 
uineness and  reality  in  religion.  Words 
are  powerless  by  themselves,  preaching 
that  rings  hollow  is  unwelcome,  phrases 
empty  of  life  do  not  convince,  churches 
are  blamed  for  professions  that  do  not  rule 
the  life.  The  demand  for  genuineness 
thus  far  appears  largely  in  negative  form, 
clearing  away  the  ungenuine ;  and  to  many 
it  seems  dangerous  and  destructive.     But 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  97 

it  will  not  continue  to  be  negative.  It  is 
a  hopeful  beginning  for  a  deeper  experi- 
ence •  of  the  great  realities  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  A  generation  that  insists  upon  \y 
tearing  down  the  false  will  not  be  content 
until  the  true  has  been  built  up  in  its 
place.  The  experience  of  God,  of  Christ, 
of  the  Spirit,  of  love,  and  of  victory  is 
coming  in.  It  will  take  new  forms,  but  it 
will  be  the  old  reality,  and  the  Christian 
doctrine  will  stand  forth  strong  and  clear, 
— clear  in  the  light  of  simplicity,  and 
strong  in  the  strength  of  God. 


Ill 


THE   CHRISTIAN   POWER 

If  we  have  a  people  and  a  doctrine,  what 
more  do  we  want  to  make  up  our  Chris- 
tianity? A  set  of  ideas  satisfactory  and 
inspiring,  and  a  multitude  of  people  de- 
voted to  them,  —  is  not  this  enough  ? 
Many  suppose,  or  assume,  that  this  will 
account  for  it  all.  When  we  have  seen 
these  two  elements,  and  acknowledged 
them,  have  we  not  seen  all  that  there 
is  of  it?  But  we  have  something  more. 
Our  discernment  of  the  real  nature  of 
Christianity  is  not  complete  till  we  have 
apprehended  and  in  some  degree  under- 
stood the  Christian  Power. 

The  Christian  power  is  not  a  late-coming 
element.  We  see  it  from  the  first.  We 
perceive  it  at  work  in  the  very  production 
of  the  Christian  people  and  the  Christian 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  99 


doctrine.  There  was  an  initial  power,  that 
brought  forth  these  two  great  facts  in  the 
world,  and  this  power  we  can  trace  with- 
out difficulty.  It  began,  as  we  know,  in 
the  Master,  Jesus  himself,  and  the  quali- 
ties by  which  he  made  his  impression.  He 
drew  to  himself  the  first  disciples,  by  the 
joint  influence  of  his  marvellous  person- 
ality and  the  high,  helpful,  and  inspiring 
truth  that  he  offered  them.  Virtue  went 
forth  from  him,  upon  such  as  could  receive 
it.  His  "  Follow  me  "  was  powerful,  and 
his  instruction  was  enlightening,  uplifting, 
transforming.  His  time  for  work  was 
very  short,  and  only  beginnings  were  pos- 
sible in  his  brief  lifetime,  and  yet  he  left 
behind  him  in  the  world  a  group  of  human 
beings  spiritually  changed  by  the  touch  of 
his  personality,  and  instructed  in  the  first 
principles  of  his  truth.  Thus  Jesus  be- 
came the  creator  of  the  Christian  peox)le, 
by  the  power  that  was  in  him.  It  was  a 
personal  power,  awakening,  reproving,  con- 


lOO  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

soling,  spiritualizing,  opening  heaven  over 
the  earth  for  men. 

After  liLS  departure,  there  came  upon 
his  friends  a  mighty  visitation  of  spiritual 
energy.  It  was  not  associated  merely  with 
their  remembrances  of  his  life  and  words 
among  them,  but  rather  with  the  divine 
surprise  that  his  resurrection  brought  upon 
them.  Now  they  looked  up  to  him  as 
exalted  to  the  right  hand  of  God  in 
glory  ;  and  along  with  this  thought  of  the 
glory  that  had  been  given  to  him  there 
came  upon  them  an  immense  and  over- 
whelming influence,  an  inspiration  of  the 
divine  Spirit,  and  an  energy  of  faith  beyond 
all  precedent.  The  evidence  of  it  is  not 
found  alone  in  the  narrative  of  the  occur- 
rences of  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Some  think  that 
narrative  is  not  historical.  But  if  that 
narrative  were  not  there,  the  story  of  the 
early  Christianity  as  a  whole  would  still 
conclusively  imply  some  such  experience 


THE   CIJRISTrAN  POWER  loi 


as  is  there  described,  —  an  enlargement  of 
spiritual  vision,  a  quickening  of  confidence, 
a  visitation  of  power.  The  history  cannot 
be  accounted  for  without  the  descent  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  church.  Some- 
how there  came  in  those  days  an  amazing 
outburst  of  enthusiastic  certainty,  a  rush 
of  vigor,  a  transforming  conviction  of  the 
great  realities,  by  which  neophytes  became 
heralds  and  expounders  of  the  faith,  and 
a  scattered  little  flock  became  a  strong 
people.  Out  of  this  visitation  of  power 
came,  in  due  time,  the  missionary  impulse, 
and  the  new  faith  went  out  to  the  wide 
Roman  world.  Thus  it  was  that  the 
power  made  the  people. 

It  was  through  the  same  experience  of 
power  that  the  Christian  doctrine  was 
born.  The  doctrine,  we  may  remember, 
was  not  merely  the  truth,  but  the  truth 
as  the  church  knew  it  by  experience.  It 
consisted  in  the  Christian  conceptions  after 
they  had  passed  through  the  medium  of 


I02  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

the  Christian  life,  and  had  thus  become 
vital  possessions  of  the  Christian  people. 
Nothing  but  the  immense  vitality  of  the 
experience  could  have  brought  the  doctrine 
forth  as  a  living  thing.  We  greatly  mis- 
judge if  we  think  the  adoption  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  was  the  cool  adoption 
of  a  set  of  opinions  :  it  was  the  glowing 
realization  of  a  world  of  spiritual  verities. 
Herein  was  manifested  a  tremendous  power, 
and  Christianity  was  already  signalized  in 
the  world  as  a  living  force  of  great 
energy. 

The  power  has  continued  until  now, 
and  we  have  to  note  that  it  has  wrought 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  other  elements 
of  Christianity  that  we  have  considered. 
It  was  cast  forth  into  the  human  world, 
and  its  operation  was  affected  by  its  field 
and  modified  by  what  it  had  to  work  upon. 
It  has  wrought  steadily  on,  age  after  age, 
and  yet  for  its  results  it  has  been  com- 
pelled to  bide  its  time  and  gain  by  gradual 


THE  CHRISTIAN  POWER  103 


increments.       James    Hinton,     who    had. 
ideas  of  his  own  about  Natiu^e  as  an  ex- 
pression of  God,  —  ideas  fine  in  esthetic 
quality,   searching   in   moral   power,   and 
most  valuable,  as  he  conceived,  for  practi- 
cal life,  and  at  the  same  time  thoroughly 
revolutionary,  —  once  estimated   the  time 
that  would  have  to  be  allowed  for  the  intro- 
duction of  such  ideas  to  full  effective  appli- 
cation.    He  put  the  period  at  two  hundred 
years,   with  judgment   that   it   would   be 
longer  rather  than  shorter.     First,  the  idea 
must   be   seen   in   enthusiastic   vision   by 
some  one,  and  enunciated   for   the  world 
to  hear.     It  must  get  abroad  among  men, 
and  be  somewhat   widely   considered.     It 
must  come  to  be  deemed  important.     Then 
it   must  be  ignored,  recognized,  restated, 
ridiculed,   refuted,    denied,   doubted,    ad- 
mitted, discussed,   affirmed,   believed,   ac- 
cepted, taught  to  adults,  taught  to  children, 
wrought  into  literature,  put  into  practice, 
taught  to  another  generation  of  children, 


104  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

kept  in  practice,  tested  by  its  fruits,  al- 
lowed to  modify  other  ideas,  embodied  in 
institutions;  and  in  the  course  of  some 
generations  it  will  sink  in  among  the  cer- 
tainties that  are  assumed  and  acted  upon 
without  question  and  without  thought. 
For  this  process  two  hundred  years  is  a 
short  period.  This  is  a  fair  illustration 
of  the  kind  of  world  in  which  Christianity 
was  cast  abroad  as  seed  upon  the  field. 
We  are  often  asked,  almost  triumphantly, 
why  Christianity  has  not  accomplished 
more  in  so  very  long  a  time.  But  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  long  time  or  short  time, 
absolutely.  Everything  is  relative,  and 
time  is  long  or  short  according  to  what  has 
to  be  accomplished  in  it.  Time  that  is  long 
for  one  purpose  is  short  for  another.  Time 
that  is  long  for  a  national  career  may  be 
short  for  the  lifetime  of  an  idea.  No 
dce])ly  significant  periods  in  human  his- 
tory are  short:  all  great  movements  are 
long  movements.    I  have  a  friend,  a  geolo- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  105 

gist,  who  affirms  that  every  minister  ought 
to  take  a  course  in  historical  geology,  in 
order  to  learn  something  about  the  length 
of  processes,  and  thus  at  once  enlarge  and 
slow  down  his  expectations  of  divine  oper- 
ation among  men.  Certainly  a  just  per- 
spective in  history  will  tend  to  cure  us  of 
much  of  our  hurry,  and  silence  many  of 
our  cavils.  Cliristianity  undertook  a  moral 
transformation  in  an  evil  world.  It  must 
be  judged  in  the  light  of  slow  processes 
and  long  periods. 

Thinking  in  this  strain,  we  shall  not 
wonder  or  be  scandalized  at  the  great 
reaction  that  we  are  often  asked  to  notice, 
at  the  end  of  the  first  age  of  power,  when 
the  apostles  had  departed.  That  such  a 
reaction  and  decline  of  energy  occurred  is 
certain.  Yet  it  was  not  so  much  a  re- 
action of  Christianity,  as  it  was  a  reaction 
of  human  nature  after  its  first  leap  of 
new  life.  Human  kind  never  puts  forth 
exceptional  energy  without  paying  for  it 


I06  THE  CHRISTIAN  POWER 

in  reaction,  and  the  vigor  of  the  first 
Christian  period  was  followed  by  com- 
parative lifelessness  in  the  second.  Nor 
can  we  wonder  that  when  Christianity 
grew  up  in  the  larger  world,  after  its 
transplantation,  its  power  seemed  ham- 
pered and  repressed  by  its  surroundings 
and  materials.  All  this  was  of  the  inevi- 
table. Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  do  we 
wonder  when  we  see  again  and  again  the 
breaking-forth  of  genuine  and  effective 
power  in  unexpected  quarters.  This  was 
the  reassertion  of  the  native  quality.  The 
history  of  the  Christian  power  is  simply  the 
long  illustration  of  these  two  opposites. 

The  history  of  the  Christian  power  opens 
a  field  too  vast  to  be  entered  now.  I  can- 
not even  enumerate  at  all  the  works  of 
usefulness  and  help  in  which  that  power 
has  been  manifested.  Only  the  briefest 
statement  can  now  be  made,  a  statement 
of  the  simple  fact  that  through  its  history 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  10/ 


Christianity  has  shown  itself  possessed  of 
true  vitality  and  vast  energy ;  that  though 
it  has  been  resisted,  and  its  force  has  been 
diminished,  so  that  it  had  its  days  of  com- 
parative   weakness,    it    has    nevertheless 
proved  itself  to  be  animated  by  a  genuine 
and  most  vital  power.     This  is  a  common- 
place, and  as  a  commonplace  I  shall  let  it 
stand.     It  ought  to  be   unquestioned.     I 
do  not  believe,  let  it  be  said  in  passing,  in 
claiming  for  Christianity  all  the  good  that 
has  been  done  within  its  field.     Extrava- 
gant claims  defeat  themselves.     It  is  not 
true  that  to  Christianity  alone  we  should 
attribute  all  the  progress  of  that  part  of 
the  world  which  it  has  influenced.     Let  us 
be  fair  to  other  forces  in  society,  and  to 
the  general  movement  of  God  in  history. 
Yet  Christianity  has  been  a  potent  factor 
in  the  great  improvement.     To  its  influ- 
ence we  can  fairly  and  justly  trace  large 
gains  in  the  general  good.     It  has  sweet- 
ened  the   universal    life,    in    a    thousand 


I08  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

ways.     It  has  been  influential  in  the  miti- 
gating of  cruelties,  the  abolishing  of  bar- 
barities,   the   delivering  of  the   enslaved, 
the  lifting-up  of  the  downtrodden,  and  the 
long  movement  toward  giving  to  all  their 
rights.     In  spite  of  its  own  special  entan- 
glements and  embarrassments,  and  the  fre- 
quent  discrediting   of   its   influence    and 
value  through  the  faults  of  its  friends,  it  has 
done  its  good  work,  and  abundantly  vindi- 
cated itself  as  a  living  and  beneficent  force. 
There  are  some  who  are  ready  to  tell  us 
that  the  power  that  we  associate  with  the 
name   of   Christ   is    mainly   in    the   past. 
They  admit  that  he  has  been  great,  but 
claim  that  other  lords  now  hold  sway,  and 
he  is  passing   into  forgetfulness.      There 
were  different  days  once,  in  what  we  call 
the  ages  of  faith,  when  men  were  simpler 
and  more    easily  satisfied.     Then   Christ 
was  influential,  and  was  sufficient  to  the 
world  that  then  was.     But  now  we  demand 
more  evidence  for  what  we  are  to  receive. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  TOWER  109 

and  accept  nothing  with  the  ancient  readi- 
ness ;  and  under  the  new  requirements 
Christ  fails  to  be  vindicated,  and  his  power 
is  gone.  But  these  judges  of  events  are 
strangely  astray  in  their  perceptions.  The 
truth  is  that  in  what  we  call  the  ages  of 
faith  the  largeness  of  the  power  of  Christ 
was  scarcely  even  suspected,  still  less  put 
to  the  test  of  life.  It  is  only  now  that  the 
searching  and  glorious  meaning  of  his 
spiritual  power  is  beginning  to  be  per- 
ceived. It  is  deep  injustice  to  the  present 
age  to  declare  that  it  is  no  longer  looking 
to  Jesus  with  reverence  and  sense  of  de- 
pendence. Our  age  is  not  leaving  Christ 
out  of  sight  and  memory.  Its  method  of 
recognizing  his  power  differs  from  that  of 
other  days,  and  much  that  has  been  asso- 
ciated with  him  may  now  have  lost  the 
reverence  that  once  was  given  to  it.  But 
if  we  ask  to  whom  or  to  what  the  world 
is  looking  to-day,  in  its  deepest  and  most 
earnest  heart,  for  spiritual  light  and  coun- 


no  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

sel,  there  is  but  one  ans\yer.  It  is  looking 
to  Jesus.  To  the  powerful  simplicity  of 
his  truth  and  the  efficient  strength  of  his 
leadership  the  world  is  even  now  turning 
as  its  best  hope.  There  is  weakness  and 
fault  enough  in  this,  I  know,  and  there  is 
too  much  forgetfulness  of  his  precepts  and 
his  spirit.  The  worldly  impulse  is  always 
with  us,  ready  to  sweep  men  and  nations 
off  into  disloyal  selfishness  and  pride. 
Nevertheless  it  is  recognized  as  it  never 
was  before,  that  whether  we  are  willing  to 
act  upon  it  or  not,  the  spirit  of  Jesus  is 
the  only  spirit  that  can  work  peace  and 
righteousness  among  men  and  nations,  and 
that  in  him,  if  we  would  let  him  have  his 
way,  there  is  actual  power  to  right  our 
wrongs  and  heal  our  woes.  His  personal- 
ity stands  out  impressive  and  revered,  and 
there  is  to-day  a  devotion  to  the  real 
Christ,  in  work  and  service,  such  as  no 
other  age  has  known.  The  power  still 
lives.     Sometimes  with  an  enthusiastic  joy. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  III 


and  sometimes  with  a  pathetic  confidence, 
our  own  time  turns  to  him  who  is  the 
voice  of  God  among  us,  uttering  with 
authority  the  word  of  power  and  hope. 

One   transparent   and    triumphant    evi- 
dence of  the  strength  and  persistence  of 
the  Christian  power  is  ever  before  us.     It 
resides   in  this,  that  in  all  the  ages   the 
Christian  people  and   the    Christian   doc- 
trine  have   been  kept  in  the  world,  and 
kept  possessed  in   good   degree   of   their 
characteristic  vitality.     That  the  Christian 
people  are  still  here,  and  in  spite  of  all 
imperfections  are  still  bearing  essentially 
the   Christian   character,  we   know  quite 
well.     It  is  equally  true  that  the  doctrine 
of  to-day  is  essentially  the  doctrine  of  the 
beginning,  and  that  it  still  persists  in  its 
original  character,  as  spiritual  reality  ex- 
perienced.    It  has  come  down  to  us  not 
merely  as  a  set  of  ideas,  but  as  a  set  of 
ideas  wrought  into  life  and  in  life  persist- 
ing ;  and  the  realities  experienced  and  the 


1 1 2  THE   CHRIS  TIA  AT  PO  WER 

life  persisting  are  the  same  as  at  the  first. 
I  said  tliat  some  power  originally  produced 
the  Christian  people  and  the  Christian 
doctrine,  and  gave  the  doctrine  to  the 
people  as  a 'factor  in  their  life.  Now  I 
add  that  some  power,  in  spite  of  all  diffi- 
culties and  failures,  has  kept  them  in  the 
world  till  now.  The  good  seed  was  cast 
into  a  thorn-field,  and  yet  there  is  a  har- 
vest, after  many  da3^s.  In  human  affairs 
there  has  been  much  to  dissipate  the 
Christian  energy,  to  depress  its  operation 
and  to  injure  its  fruits.  It  has  met  indif- 
ference and  opposition  without,  and  mis- 
conception, unfaithfulness,  lukewarmness, 
sometimes  treachery,  within,  and  yet  the 
power  has  kept  its  product  in  existence, 
and  has  not  lost  its  hold  upon  mankind. 
Differences  in  the  age  and  imperfections 
in  the  product  often  conceal  the  fact,  but 
the  fact  is  that  we  have  here  and  now,  and 
throughout  the  Christian  world,  essentially 
the   same   realities   in   human   experience 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  II3 

that  appeared  among  the  friends  of  Jesus 
immediately  after  his  departure.  Tliere 
has  been  a  power  sufficient  to  preserve 
them  until  now. 

This  is  all  that  I  must  take  time  to  say 
upon  the  history  of  the  Christian  power. 
Such  facts  of  course  bring  their  question. 
What  is  the  most  probable  source  of  the 
Christian  power?  Why  was  it,  we  are 
led  to  ask,  that  the  Christian  people 
sprang  up,  and  came  out  into  history  with 
the  Cliristian  truth  fused  into  doctrine 
in  their  experience  ?  What  has  caused 
the  wide  usefulness  of  Christianity  in  the 
world?  Why  has  it  so  deeply  satisfied 
the  needs  of  man  ?  Why  has  it  so  often 
been  able  to  overcome  scepticism  and 
establish  faith  ?  What  has  kept  the  peo- 
ple and  the  doctrine  in  the  world  till  now  ? 
and  wherein  lies  the  present  strength  of 
Christianity?  Whence,  in  a  word,  comes 
the  Christian  power  ? 
8 


114  ^^^-^   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

When  I  answer  this  question  as  I  think 
it  should  be  answered,  what  will  you 
accuse  me  of  ?  If  you  accuse  me  of  beg- 
ging the  question,  I  shall  deny  the  validity 
of  the  charge.  If  you  accuse  me  of  mak- 
ing it  all  too  simple,  at  that  I  shall  not  be 
troubled.  I  have  long  since  learned  that 
the  true  is  the  simple,  and  that  we  human 
beings  have  wasted  centuries,  all  told,  in 
devising  needlessly  complicated  explana- 
tions of  things.  If  my  explanation  is 
simple,  simple  let  it  be  ;  and  if  you  intend 
to  object  to  it,  object  on  some  better 
ground  than  that. 

My  answer  is  that  the  most  reasonable 
account  of  the  power  of  Christianity  is  that 
Christianity  is  true.  This  is  the  most  natu- 
ral explanation  that  can  be  given  of  that 
strong,  effective,  victorious  power  which 
certainly  appeared  in  the  first  days  of  our 
faith,  which  has  been  fighting  its  enemies 
ever  since,  and  which  still  remains  upon 
the   field. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  II5 

This  answer  is  certainly  very  short.  To 
one  who  does  not  at  once  accept  it,  it 
sounds  like  begging  the  question.  That 
is  just  because  it  is  so  short  and  compact, 
and  the  meaning  of  it  has  not  been  brought 
out.  I  should  be  most  unwilling  to  leave 
it  thus  curt  and  unexpanded,  for  there  is 
need  of  unfolding  its  meaning  if  it  is  to 
be  received  as  a  true  answer.  We  may 
not  all  mean  the  same  thing  when  we  say 
that  Christianity  is  true.  I  presume  there 
are  many  who  have  used  the  expression, 
some  accepting  it  and  some  rejecting, 
who  have  never  distinctly  asked  them- 
selves what  they  meant  by  it.  In  many 
minds,  both  of  believers  and  of  unbelievers 
concerning  Christianity,  there  is  no  clear 
idea  of  what  it  is  for  Christianity  to  be 
true.  There  are  so  many  definitions  of 
Christianity  implied  in  the  thoughts  of 
different  persons,  the  central  realities 
are  surrounded  by  so  great  a  variety  of 
explanations  and  additions,  and  the   short 


Il6  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

word  "  true "  may  mean  so  many  things, 
that  it  is  no  wonder  if  ambiguity  hangs 
over  the  main  idea,  and  we  may  differ 
widely  without  knowing  it,  as  to  what  we 
mean  by  saying  that  Christianity  is  true.  I 
am  anxious  that  the  right  meaning  of  this 
central  assertion  may  be  clearly  perceived. 
If  we  understand  it,  we  can  judge  whether 
I  am  right  in  assigning  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity as  the  best  explanation  of  its  power. 
What  is  it,  then,  for  Christianity  to  be 
true  ?  When  any  one  afhrms  that  Chris- 
tianity is  true,  he  means,  or  ought  to 
mean,  that  Christianity  is  made  up  of 
realities ;  that  what  it  represents  as  real  is 
real ;  that,  in  the  realm  of  the  soul,  things 
are  as  it  declares  that  they  are  ;  that  its 
affirmations  accord  with  fact,  and  its  ex- 
periences are  experiences  of  reality.  It  is 
meant  that  Christianity  sets  forth  the 
great  spiritual  realities  as  they  are,  and 
nothing  but  the  test  of  genuine  experiment 
is  needed  to  prove  it. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  POWER  11/ 

Notice,  I  beg,  where  it  is  that  I  thus 
place  the  centre  of  Christianity,  and  where 
I  take  my  stand  for  the  purpose  of  defini- 
tion. I  place  the  centre  of  Christianity 
not  in  its  statements,  but  in  its  realities 
and  experiences.  I  do  not  identify  the 
truth  of  Christianity  with  the  statements 
of  its  advocates,  or  any  of  them,  concern- 
ing it,  or  with  the  explanations  that  they 
have  offered  of  its  facts,  or  with  the  decla- 
rations of  its  creeds,  whether  special  or 
ecumenical.  In  all  these  matters  there 
may  be  wide  and  irreconcilable  differences. 
I  place  the  centre  of  Christianity  in  its 
realities  and  experiences,  and  there  I  take 
my  stand  for  the  purpose  of  definition. 
For  Christianity  to  be  true  is  for  its  real- 
ities to  be  realities,  experienceable,  and 
experienced.  If  Christianity  is  true,  it 
sets  forth  things  that  are,  in  the  realm  of 
the  soul.  It  testifies  according  to  truth, 
concerning  the  eternal  realities. 

But  this  statement  in  turn  needs  to  be 


THE    CHRISTIAN  POWER 


filled  out,  for  only  in  the  filling-out  of  it 
can  the  proof  of  it  be  found.  Suppose 
that  Christianity  is  true:  then  what  is 
true  ?  What  is  the  truth,  or  what  are  the 
realities,  involved  ?  This,  after  all  is  our 
question.  We  have  not  told  what  we 
mean  by  saying  that  Christianity  is  true, 
until  we  have  unfolded  our  statement 
here,  and  set  before  ourselves  what  it  is 
that  is  true,  or  real,  in  Christianity. 

I  shall  answer  the  question  by  reaffirm- 
ing the  elements  that  compose  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  in  the  experience  of  the 
Christian  people:  and  the  reaffirmation 
will  not  be  a  waste  of  words.  If  Chris- 
tianity is  true,  then  these  great  elements 
entered  into  it  by  right,  and  belong  in  all 
right  experience  of  men,  because  they  rep- 
resent the  eternal  reality.  I  hold  that 
Christianity  is  true :  that  is,  I  believe  that 
the  great  elements  that  make  up  the 
Christian  doctrine,  by  means  of  the  Chris- 
tian experience,   accord  with  the   eternal 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  II9 

reality,  and  rightly  represent  it.  Listen 
now  to  the  statement  of  what  it  is  for 
Christianity  to  be  true. 

If  Christianity  is  true,  God  is  the  su- 
premely good  Being  that  Jesus  declared 
him  to  be.  He  really  is  at  heart  a  Father 
to  us  men,  and  our  right  and  normal  rela- 
tion to  him  is  that  of  children  living  at 
home  with  the  eternal  goodness.  When 
we  live  as  we  ought,  we  shall  find  our- 
selves living  as  true  sons,  in  loyal  family 
fellowship  with  the  best  being  that  the 
heart  of  man  can  conceive.  These  are  the 
facts,  if  Christianity  is  true:  this  is  the 
kind  of  God  that  there  is,  and  there  is  no 
other.  This  is  the  true  and  real  meaning 
of  existence  for  us  men.  The  world  is 
the  world  of  such  a  God,  holy  and  gracious, 
sin-hating  and  fatherly.  Into  the  world 
of  such  a  God,  and  into  life  with  such  a 
meaning,  we  are  all  born,  if  Christianity  is 
true.  It  is  the  duty  and  the  privilege  of 
every  one  of  us  to  be  living  at  home  with 


120  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

the  absolutely  good  and  holy  God,  in  filial 
fellowship :  and  the  better  we  become  ac- 
quainted with  our  God,  if  Christianity  is 
true,  the  more  thoroughly  shall  we  know 
him  as  the  perfect  and  glorious  One,  in 
whom  all  our  being  finds  full  rest  and 
satisfaction. 

Again,  if  Christianity  is  true,  Jesus 
Christ  is  really  the  gift  of  God  to  us  men 
for  our  spiritual  salvation.  He  really  is 
for  us  the  way  and  the  truth  and  the  life. 
He  finds  us  astray  in  moral  evil  and  brings 
us  home.  We  were  forfeiting  in  a  sinful 
life  our  privilege  of  filial  life  with  the 
eternal  goodness.  He  came  to  us  to  save 
us  out  of  our  sin;  and  he  does  bring  us 
out  of  our  sin,  into  eternal  life  with  God. 
He  really  does  stand  to  us  as  Saviour.  In 
what  he  has  done  for  us  in  his  life  and 
death  there  is  a  genuine  reality,  rich  in 
blessing  for  us  and  for  all  men.  If  Chris- 
tianity is  true,  Jesus  Christ  is  God's  way 
to  us,  and  our  way  to  God. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  121 

Again,  if  Christianity  is  true,  God  is  not 
wholly  outside  of  us,  addressing  us  from 
beyond  ourselves.  We  have  not  told  the 
whole  when  we  have  said  that  in  Christ 
he  comes  to  us  and  seeks  us  for  our  good. 
It  is  true  also  that  the  living  God  really 
dwells  in  our  souls.  He  is  a  God  within. 
He  convinces  us  of  evil  by  actual  inward 
influence.  He  really  renews  our  hearts, 
working  character  such  as  he  desires  to 
see  in  us.  He  truly  communes  with  us  in 
the  secret  place  of  the  heart.  He  teaches 
truth  to  the  soul  of  man,  by  real  inward 
suggestion.  If  Christianity  is  true,  God 
comes  as  near  to  us  as  we  are  to  ourselves, 
and  we  possess  him  as  an  actual  indwel- 
ling companion. 

Again,  if  Christianity  is  true,  the  only 
right  inspiration  of  life  and  guide  of  con- 
duct in  all  relations  is  what  Jesus  said  it 
was,  —  namely,  love.  The  life  of  sonship 
toward  God  is  thereby  a  life  of  brother- 
hood toward  men.     When  we  live  accord- 


122  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

ing  to  love  toward  our  fellows,  we  do  the 
tiling  that  ought  to  be,  and  make  of  life 
what  life  ought  to  be.  When  unselfish- 
ness and  the  highest  helpful  affection  form 
our  law  of  living,  then  we  have  struck  a 
chord  in  the  eternal  harmony,  —  and  all 
that  is  dissonant  with  love  is  discord  to 
the  eternal  harmony.  This  is  the  spiritual 
and  practical  reality,  in  this  world  and  in 
any  other  world  that  there  may  be.  This 
is  the  thing  that  is.  Here  is  the  clue  to 
the  significance  of  our  life,  here  is  the  key- 
note of  our  duty,  here  is  the  true  method 
for  all  our  doings.  If  Christianity  is  true, 
God  is  love,  and  all  men  ought  to  be  love, 
and  existence  is  successful  onl}^  so  far  as 
existence  means  love. 

And  again,  if  Christianity  is  true,  there 
is  for  all  of  us,  corresponding  to  these 
spiritual  realities,  a  genuine  transforming 
energy.  We  are  not  talking  of  theories, 
or  supposing  cases :  we  are  not  discussing 
far  olf  the  good  that  is  to  be  approved 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  1 23 

and  desired  but  cannot  be  attained.  Here 
is  a  genuine  might  for  action.  Here  dwells 
the  power  of  God  for  salvation.  The  sav- 
ing agency  of  Christ  is  real,  and  the  in- 
dwelling Spirit  actually  does  his  work. 
Transformation  is  an  actual  experience,  a 
result  attained.  Character  does  become 
changed  when  these  forces  have  their  way. 
Sin  can  be  conquered,  holiness  is  possible. 
High  virtue  is  within  our  reach,  and  effec- 
tive power  to  do  good  in  the  needy  world 
can  be  had.  We  can  be  brought  to  live  at 
home  with  God  in  holy  and  happy  fellow- 
ship, and  to  live  in  helpful  love  among 
men.  All  this  has  been  done,  and  can  be 
done  again. 

If  Christianity  is  true,  I  say  once  more, 
these  are  the  facts  in  our  case,  and  in  the 
case  of  all  men  :  this  is  the  thing  that  is  ; 
this  is  what  existence  means  :  when  we  put 
reality  to  the  test  of  sincere  experiment, 
this  is  what  we  shall  find  the  genuine  and 
eternal  reality  to  be.     For  Christianity  to 


124  ^-^^   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

be  true  is  for  these  things  to  be  so,  and 
to  be  verifiable,  and  verified,  in  experi- 
ence. Let  our  individual  understanding  of 
these  realities  be  adequate  or  inadequate, 
that  makes  no  difference  with  the  facts. 
Though  we  had  no  understanding  of  them 
at  all,  nay,  though  we  were  totally  igno- 
rant of  them,  these  are  the  facts  :  this  is 
the  kind  of  world  we  have  been  born 
into :  this  is  what  our  existence  signifies. 
Though  we  should  disagree  widely  in  our 
interpretation  of  these  realities,  and  should 
even  grow  so  blind  in  heart  as  to  forget 
our  brotherhood  and  count  one  another 
aliens  because  of  our  disagreement,  still 
these  are  the  realities,  and  these  are  the 
realities  forever.  God  is  the  holy  Being 
with  whom  we  ought  to  live  as  children, 
Christ  is  the  Saviour  who  seeks  to  bring 
us  thither,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  indwell- 
ing Friend,  love  is  the  law  of  life,  and 
the  holy  victory  may  be  ours. 

Now  what  I  am  affirming  is,  that  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  1 25 


best  explanation  of   the  power  of   Chris- 
tianity  among   men   is   that    Christianity 
is  true:    that  Christianity  sets   forth  the 
things  of  the  soul  as  they  are.     The  power 
is  best   accounted   for  by  supposing   that 
the   true   representation  of    the    meaning 
of  the   soul's   life  is  here  given,  so  that 
to  experience  what  Christianity  proposes 
is  to  experience  the  thing  that  is,  and  thus 
to  find  eternal  foundations.     If  this  were 
so,    then  power  would   follow,    even   the 
power  that  attends  upon  reality  when  it 
is  put  to  the  test.     If  this  were  so,  then 
the  power  of  the  living  God  himself  would 
go  fortli  in  Christianity,  to  make  it  effec- 
tive.   That  this  is  so,  I  thoroughly  believe. 
The  Christian  experience  is  experience  of 
the   eternal   reality.     This  is  why  Chris- 
tianity,   presented    in    its    spiritual    sim- 
plicity, has   always  appealed  successfully 
to  the  best  that  is  in  man :  it  is  adapted  to 
man's  soul  and  life,  and  man  to  it.    Indeed, 
all  intelligent  being  is  adapted  to  Chris- 


126  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 


tianity  and  Christianity  to  it,  because 
Christianity  sets  forth  the  realities  that 
give  to  all  intelligent  being  its  significance. 
Tertullian  told  in  the  early  centuries  of 
"  the  human  soul  which  is  naturally  Chris- 
tian;" by  which  he  meant  that  between 
the  constitution  and  destiny  of  the  human 
soul  and  the  religion  that  we  have  in 
Christ  there  is  a  natural  affinity  and  a 
mutual  adaptation.  He  was  right.  In 
Christianity  the  soul  breathes  the  native 
air  of  the  world  for  which  it  was  born,  and 
meets  the  announcement  and  experience  of 
the  truth  for  which  it  was  made.  Conse- 
quently it  is  the  lower  elements  in  the 
soul's  life  that  draw  it  away  from  Christ, 
while  the  worthiest  elements  are  respon- 
sive to  his  touch.  Sound  judgment  may 
often  bring  strong  objection  against  cer- 
tain interpretations  of  the  great  realities, 
which  may  have  been  offered  as  if  they 
were  identical  with  them,  but  when  we 
come  to  the  realities   themselves,  behold, 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  12/ 


they  are  good,  and  the  noblest  in  the  soul 
affirms  it.  Christ  calls  for  the  best  and 
worthiest  that  man  is  capable  of,  and 
every  one  that  is  of  the  truth  hears  his 
voice.  This  power  in  Christianity  to  win 
the  response  of  the  best  in  man  is  good 
evidence  that  the  voice  is  indeed  the  voice 
of  truth. 

I  have  claimed  that  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity is  the  best  explanation  of  the  age- 
long power  of   Christianity.     Yet  in  any 
adequate  account  of  that  power  as  actually 
at  work   there   is  one  other  thing  to  be 
mentioned.     I  must  speak  a  word  about 
its    manner    of   laying    hold    upon    men. 
Even  truth  is  not  always  powerful.     Even 
truth  assented  to,  and  truth  beUeved,  may 
sometimes  fail  of  power.     There  was  an 
element  abundantly  present  in  the  life  of 
the  first  Christian  days,  and  present  more 
or  less  at  every  stage  of  the  long  Christian 
movement,  that  must  be  counted  in  before 


128  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

we  have  placed  in  sight  the  entire  material 
out  of  which  power  was  made.  We  must 
take  account  of  the  mighty  element  of 
feeling.  It  is  when  realities  are  felt  to  be 
realities  that  they  become  powerful  in  the 
life  of  mankind. 

Here  we  have  to  acknowledge  a  strange 
and  almost  incurable  error.  We  very  well 
know  that  in  the  moral  and  religious  realm 
the  impulse  of  feeling  is  needed  if  truth  is 
to  go  forth  to  victory,  and  yet  we  are  con- 
stantly overlooking  it.  AVe  are  constantly 
assuming  that  truth  is  to  be  influential 
upon  men  chiefly  through  the  intellect. 
To  the  intellect,  we  think,  truth  makes  its 
appeal.  Truth  can  be  stated.  It  belongs 
to  the  mind,  it  is  to  be  handled  in  thought, 
it  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  judgment. 
Truth  can  be  accepted  as  truth,  —  that  is, 
as  correct,  valid,  and  worthy  to  be  held,  — • 
and  what  more  is  there  to  be  done  ?  It 
can  doubtless  be  completed  or  enriched  by 
further  additions  or  modifications,  brought 


THE    CHRISTIAN  POWER  1 29 

in  by  the  samo  process  of  the  intellect 
continued :  the  statement  of  it  can  be 
made  more  satisfactory,  and  the  uses  of 
it  more  plain,  but  we  do  not  habitually 
look  to  other  processes  than  these  as 
equally  important.  Anything  that  cannot 
be  clearly  stated,  we  sometimes  allow 
ourselves  to  say,  cannot  be  true,  and 
certainly  cannot  be  expected  to  exert 
power  upon  men.  With  this  general  idea 
about  truth  we  make  our  statements  as 
accurate  as  we  can.  We  draw  up  our 
creeds  and  confessions,  and  are  satisfied 
with  our  expression  of  truth,  and  declare 
that  this,  now  clearly  stated,  is  what  we 
hold ;  and  then  we  assume  that  the  truth 
in  the  case  has  been  adequately  treated, 
and  expect  it  to  be  powerful.  In  fact,  we 
have  often  made  up  our  creeds  somewhat 
as  a  geologist  makes  up  his  description  of 
the  geological  column,  or  a  chemist  his 
statement  of  the  result  of  his  analysis. 
We  set  forth  the  thing  that  we  suppose  to 
9 


130  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 


be  correct,  and  are  content,  under  the 
impression  that  truth  is  now  ready  for 
the  wars. 

And  then  very  often  we  are  disappointed. 
Truth  thus  equipped  does  not  seem  after 
all  to  be  prepared  for  victorious  battle. 
Statements  do  not  win  the  day.  The 
fact  is  that  in  the  moral  and  religious 
realm  thought,  be  it  ever  so  clear,  is  only 
the  preparation  for  power,  not  the  very 
means  of  power  itself.  Power  comes  with 
feeling.  Truth  becomes  effective  by  being 
felt  to  be  truth.  Stated  in  accurate  forms 
it  has  a  very  neat  appearance,  and  is  con- 
venient for  reference  and  consultation, 
but  there  is  no  inward  necessity  that  we 
should  do  anything  about  it.  Not  until 
some  one  feels  that  something  is  true  does 
that  something  go  out  with  effective 
power  into  the  world.  Unfelt  knowledge 
is  scarcely  more  fruitful  than  ignorance. 
Unfelt  truth  lies  unused.  In  order  to  be- 
come effective,  truth  must  be  perceived  as 


THE   CHRISTIAN  TOWER  I3I 


trutli  in  the  sensitive  part  of  the  interior 
life,  whence  the  compelling  influence  upon 
the  springs  of  action  proceeds.     If  the  out- 
come of  the  life  of  Jesus  had  been  ever  so 
clear  and  true  a  set  of  propositions,  writ- 
ten  out   to  be   preserved,  and  there  had 
been  nothing  more,  we  might  never  have 
heard  of  Christianity.     There  would  have 
been  no  Christianity,  but  only  a  teaching. 
When  the  truth   that   Jesus   imparted  to 
his  friends  came  to  be  felt  as  truth,  and 
influential  in  the  realm  of  the  affections, 
then   it   came  to   have   power,    and   only 
then. 

But  the  truth  that  Jesus  had  given 
them  did  come  to  be  felt  as  truth.  This 
is  exactly  the  thing  that  did  happen.  The 
reality  took  possession  of  the  men,  the 
Spirit  showed  it  to  them,  and  then  the 
Christian  power  was  born.  We  have  in 
the  New  Testament  the  vivid  portrayal  of 
this  very  thing.  I  wish  I  might  set  before 
you  the  New   Testament  picture   of  the 


1 3  2  THE   CHRIS  TIAN  PO  WER 

early  Christian  feeling.  If  I  attempt  it, 
you  will  not  think  that  I  am  claiming 
that  those  first  Cliristians  did  full  justice 
to  the  realities  of  which  I  speak.  I  am 
not  claiming  that,  for  of  course  I  know 
the  imperfectness  of  it  all,  since  it  was  all 
human.  Yet  I  am  not  drawing  a  false 
picture,  for  the  sense  of  these  realities  was 
genuine,  and  to  represent  it  is  to  show  the 
very  thing  that  set  Christianity  in  motion 
as  a  living  force. 

The  first  Christian  reality  to  enter  into 
the  world  of  feeling  appears  to  have  been 
the  Saviourhood  of  Jesus.  It  now  came 
to  pass  that  his  disciples  grasped  the  mean- 
ing of  what  they  had  seen  and  heard,  and 
it  came  home  to  them  with  moving  power. 
In  the  realm  of  feeling  it  now  was  real  to 
them  that  for  their  sake  he  had  lived  and 
died  and  risen  again,  and  was  now  tri- 
umphant in  God's  glory.  They  felt  that 
they  had  a  Saviour  from  their  sin  and  loss, 
who  filled  them  with  new  life  which  was 


THE   CHRISTIAN-  POWER  1 33 

life  eternal.  Christ  had  brought  them 
home  to  God.  To  God?  and  what  was 
God  to  them  now,  in  this  new  day  of  feel- 
ing? God  was  not  to  them  an  article  of 
faith  in  creed,  but  a  reality  in  their  own 
life.  God  was  a  reality  that  redeemed 
them  from  sin  and  fear  and  low  living,  and 
from  mortality  itself ;  and  the  power  of 
this  reality  was  actually  upon  them,  to 
make  all  things  new.  They  felt  them- 
selves at  home  with  God,  forgiven,  ac- 
cepted, made  his  children,  domiciled  with 
him  in  the  home  of  the  spirit.  Nay,  more 
and  closer,  God  was  not  merely  with  them, 
he  was  in  them.  Their  belief  in  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  simply  their  sense  of  the  in- 
wardness of  this  divine  gift,  their  feeling 
of  God  within.  It  was  their  consciouness 
that  God  had  come  nearer  than  to  be 
among  them,  but  had  passed  the  door  of 
their  being  and  was  inhabiting  them  as  a 
temple  or  a  home.  And  now  they  felt,  yes, 
felt,  that  love  was  the  atmosphere  of  their 


134  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

being.  The  love  of  God  and  Christ  had 
been  poured  out  around  them  and  within, 
and  love  constituted  their  very  life.  So 
love,  in  the  fine  forms  of  fellowship,  kind- 
ness, mutual  helpfulness,  and  missionary 
zeal,  became  a  life  and  power  among  the 
Christians:  they  actually  loved  one  an- 
other, and  felt  the  flame  of  love  within 
themselves.  And  in  the  same  manner  the 
remaining  element,  the  reality  of  a  success- 
ful Christian  holiness  and  victory,  became 
a  vital  thing.  Men  now  felt  that  great 
things  were  possible :  they  not  merely 
thought  it  and  affirmed  it  as  a  matter  of 
belief,  as  we  are  always  ready  to  do,  but 
felt  it,  as  we  sometimes  do  not.  Hence 
naturally  sprang  courage  and  high  en- 
deavor, and  splendid  success.  Religion 
passed  into  virtue,  because  the  possibility 
of  high  success  was  felt,  and  livingly  be- 
lieved in.  Reality  got  possession  of  feel- 
ing, and  then  the  day  of  power  had  come. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  I35 

In  form,  I  have  now  been  speaking  of  the 
first  clays  and  the  springing-up  of  power, 
but  in  fact,  I  have  described  what  has 
given  power  to  Christianity  in  all  times. 
Where  do  you  find  your  powerful  men, 
—  your  Augustine,  Luther,  John  Wes- 
ley? Where  are  your  reformers,  puritans, 
leaders?  They  are  men  of  feeling,  in 
whom  realities  live.  They  need  not  be 
emotional  men,  in  the  popular  sense  of 
that  word,  but  they  are  men  of  feeling  in 
the  nobler  sense,  men  to  whom  the  Chris- 
tian realities  are  living  things,  felt  in  their 
greatness  and  importance.  When  have 
been  the  ages  of  power?  When,  but  when 
the  sense  of  God  and  Christ  came  in,  and 
thought  Avas  warmed  to  vigor,  and  faith 
became  a  passion?  Who  are  the  weaker 
men,  and  when  have  come  the  times  of 
feebleness?  The  weaker  men,  for  the  ag- 
gressive purposes  of  God,  are  the  men 
who,  whatever  they  may  think,  do  not 
feel:  and  the  feebler  periods  are  those  in 


136  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

which  the  pulses  have  run  low  and  the 
great  realities  found  but  dull  response  in 
the  affections  and  emotions  of  the  Chris- 
tian people.     Power  goes  with  feeling. 

All  this  is  just  as  simple  as  I  said  it 
was.  The  power  of  Christianity  resides 
in  the  twofold  fact  that  Christianity  is 
true,  and  is  felt  as  true.  There  is  reality, 
and  there  is  sense  of  reality,  —  and  then 
there  is  power.  The  reality  that  we  have 
in  Christ  is  worthy  to  be  profoundly  felt, 
and  the  sense  of  such  reality  as  this  ought 
to  be  sufficient  to  move  the  world.  When 
it  was  anything  like  adequate,  it  has  moved 
the  world. 

It  may  seem  to  some  one  that  I  am 
building  too  much  on  feeling,  or  the  sense 
of  something  being  true.  Feeling,  it  may 
be  objected,  is  no  test  of  truth.  We  may 
feel,  most  intensely,  something  unreal: 
wherefore  the  sense  of  reality  in  the  Chris- 
tian testimony  must  not  be  taken  as  valid 
proof  of  that  testimony.     To  this  I  should 


THE    CHRISTIAN  POWER  1 3/ 

say  that  certainly  feeling  often  takes  hold 
on  error,  and  becomes  the  stimulant  of 
folly.  Feeling  is  no  proof  of  truth.  But 
I  would  add  that  neither  is  feeling  any 
evidence  that  truth  is  absent,  and  the  pres- 
ence of  it  does  not  establish  a  probability 
that  truth  is  not  there.  Is  not  feeling  the 
normal  accompaniment  of  truth  ?  Reality 
and  the  sense  of  reality  ought  to  be  insep- 
arable companions.  It  is  the  perfection  of 
relation  between  man  and  truth  that  man 
shall  feel  the  thing  that  is,  and  be  dull  to 
the  thing  that  is  not.  If  there  is  reality 
present,  and  reality  that  concerns  the  soul, 
it  is  the  normal  and  worthy  thing  for  the 
sensitive  soul,  perceiving  its  presence,  to 
feel  with  the  keenest  intensity  the  serious- 
ness, the  preciousness,  the  glory,  of  that 
which  is  so  real.  Certain  it  is  that  eternal 
and  necessary  realities,  that  touch  upon 
the  life  and  destin}^  of  the  soul,  are  worthy 
to  stir  the  deepest  feeling,  according  to 
their  character.      Hence,   in  spite   of  all 


138  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 


objection  from  the  fallibility  of  feeling,  I 
look  upon  the  Cbristian  power  as  a  noble 
confirmation  of  the  truth  of  Christianity. 
The  combination  of  facts  is  this.     Procla- 
mation is  made  of  certain  alleged  realities. 
They  are  realities  in  the  eternal  order  of 
things,  pertaining  to  the  character  of  eter- 
nal Being  and  the  relation  of  man  to  the 
eternal  love  and  holiness.     The  proclama- 
tion reaches  the  hearts  of  certain  men,  and 
in  a  sincere  experience  the  men  are  pos- 
sessed by  the  warm  and  living  certainty 
that  the  proclamation  brings  them  truth. 
They   cast   themselves   upon   the    alleged 
realities,    and   find   them   solid,    and   feel 
them  true.     Now  there  springs  up  in  them 
a   life  rich   and   sweet   with  holy  graces. 
Their  destiny  is  provided  for,  their  duty 
grows  real  to  them,  their  life  at  home  with 
God  transforms  their  character.    The  foun- 
dations of  being  now  stand  clear  and  strong 
for  them.     Warm  and  urgent  love  springs 
up  strong  in  their  hearts,  and  they  become 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  139 


heralds  of  life  and  grace  to  other  souls. 
The  world   grows  sweeter  and  purer  by 
reason  of   their  presence.     Hindrances  to 
their  higher  life  and  their  holy  efficiency 
are  on  every  side,  and  nothing  about  them 
attains  to  the  ideal  of  perfection,  and  yet 
they  continue  age  after  age  in  the  world, 
and  the  realities  are  proclaimed  after  two 
thousand  years  essentially  as  they  were  at 
first,   and  the  same   kind  of  power  goes 
forth  into  the  world  from  the  people  of 
the  faith.     What  does  all  this  mean?     It 
means  that  truth  is  here.     Each  part  of 
this  great  process  tends  to  validate  all  the 
rest.    The  one  great  thing  that  is  rendered 
daily  more  certain  to  us  is  that  the  alleged 
realities  from  which  the  process  took  its 
start  are  realities  indeed.     The  structure 
honors   the   foundation.       The    power   of 
Christianity,  related  as  it  is  to  the  high 
character  of  Christianity,  to  its  fitness  to 
serve  as  key  to  the  meaning  of  existence, 
and   to  its  ability  to  bless   all   whom   it 


I40  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

touclies,  is  a  living  evidence  that  the  whole 
is  true,  and  the  foundation  of  Christianity 
is  laid  in  the  verities  of  God. 

A  word  now  from  the  practical  side, 
about  the  power  of  Christianity  as  some- 
thing that  we  all  have  to  do  with.  Some 
of  us  are  preaching  Christianity,  and  glory 
in  our  work.  Some,  without  preaching  it, 
are  trying  to  live  it,  and  to  commend  it  as 
they  may.  Some  of  us  are  listening  to  it 
from  the  outside,  perhaps  with  conviction 
that  it  is  true,  perhaps  without  it.  In  one 
question  we  are  all  interested,  each  in  his 
own  way:  I  mean  the  question  where  the 
power  of  Christianity  at  present  may  rea- 
sonably be  expected  to  reside  and  be  dis- 
covered. What  is  a  fair  statement  as  to 
the  seat  of  power  in  Christianity  to-day? 
What  shall  we  who  wish  to  commend 
Christianity  rely  upon  ?  and  what  shall  we 
who  listen  to  Christianity  attune  our  hearts 
to  respond  to  ? 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  I4I 

Perhaps  for  this  moment  it  may  help  us 
to  divide  power  into  its  two  parts,  —  value 
and  efficiency.  The  value  of  Christianity, 
upon  which  we  must  rely  for  power  with 
men,  resides  in  its  truth,  in  the  sense  in 
which  its  truth  has  now  been  represented. 
The  fact  that  in  the  central  affirmations  of 
Christianity  the  central  realities  of  exist- 
ence are  affirmed,  —  this  is  the  value  of 
Christianity,  and  this  is  the  seat  of  power. 
If  this  were  not  so,  Christianity  would  be 
simply  one  of  the  vain  imaginings  of  men ; 
for  it  does  profess  to  set  forth  the  eternal 
verity.  The  eternal  verity  it  does  set 
forth.  Christianity  describes  you  as  you 
are,  in  view  of  the  true  and  abiding  tests: 
it  tells  you  what  you  need,  offers  you  what 
you  must  have,  exhibits  life  as  it  is,  leads 
you  to  your  right  and  normal  place  in 
God,  sliows  you  the  right  A\'ay  to  live  your 
daily  life,  gives  you  the  true  conception  of 
the  world  you  live  in,  inspires  you  with 
the  motive  that  is  right  forever,  and  gives 


142  THE    CHRISTIAN  POWER 

you  actual  possession  of  the  good  concern- 
ing which  the  nations  of  mankind  have 
now  theorized  and  now  agonized  since 
human  life  began.  This  is  the  value  of 
Christianity,  and  this  is  the  truth  to  set 
forth,  in  various  parts  and  forms,  for  the 
convincing  and  winning  of  men.  The 
value  of  Christianity  lies  in  its  bringing 
the  message  of  truth,  and  telling  the 
things  that  are,  —  and,  beyond  this,  in  its 
having  the  power  to  conform  us  to  things 
as  they  are,  and  bring  us  to  our  true  home 
in  God.  And  when  the  message  has  been 
uttered,  and  has  sunk  down  into  our  hearts 
so  that  we  can  perceive  of  what  sort  it 
really  is,  we  find  this  infinitely  great,  con- 
soling and  uplifting  word  at  the  centre  of 
it,  that  the  real  is  the  good :  the  eternally 
real  is  the  eternally  good:  eternal  being  is 
holy  and  gracious:  our  best  is  the  finite 
counterpart  of  the  infinite  goodness:  and 
hope  rather  than  fear,  confidence  rather 
than  doubt,  is  the  keynote  of  existence. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  1 43 

This  is  the  appeal  to  make.  It  can  be 
made  in  a  thousand  forms,  but  this  is  the 
tone  that  should  sound  through  all  of 
them.  This  also  is  the  appeal  to  listen 
for,  and  to  listen  to.  When  Christianity- 
is  presented  to  you  in  this  tone  and  spirit, 
there  is  something  there  that  no  one  can 
afford  to  miss.  Let  other  appeals  pass  by 
you  if  you  must,  but  never  fail  to  have  an 
ear  for  this  great  appeal  of  value. 

If  we  ask  where  v/e  are  to  look  for  effi- 
ciency in  the  present  Christianity,  —  that 
is  to  say,  what  is  to  make  it  now  effective 
in  drawing  men  to  its  side  and  maintaining 
its  active  force,  —  we  must  say  nothing 
that  would  obscure  the  efficiency  of  its 
value.  Here  first  we  must  look  for  power, 
to  the  clear  and  enthusiastic  presentation 
of  the  glorious  view  of  the  value  of  Chris- 
tianity at  which  I  have  just  hinted.  It  is 
by  virtue  of  its  truth  that  Christianity 
must  win  its  way,  and  nothing  must  be 
said  that  will   propose  any  substitute  for 


144  ^-^^-^    CHRISTIAN  POWER 

this,  or  lend  to  reliance  upon  any  other 
means  of  power  as  equal  to  this.  Yet  we 
cannot  overlook  the  fact  that  the  efficiency 
of  truth  among  men  depends  in  great 
measure  upon  the  strength  and  vividness 
of  the  sense  of  truth  in  those  who  hold  it 
forth.  That  the  Christian  people  may 
have  a  rich  and  constraining  sense  of  the 
truth  that  they  are  offering  to  the  world, 
this  is  the  next  thing  needful  for  the  efQ- 
ciency  of  our  religion.  I  have  read  a 
criticism  upon  the  converts  that  a  visitor 
found  in  some  of  the  mission-fields  in  Asia, 
to  the  effect  that  although  they  showed 
the  signs  of  sincerity  in  their  new  faith, 
they  did  not  have  the  appearance  of  men 
who  were  enthusiastically  full  of  the  feel- 
ing that  they  had  in  their  new  faith  the 
best  thing  in  the  world  and  the  best  thing 
that  the  heart  of  man  could  imagine.  The 
criticism  was  altogether  a  friendly  one.  I 
do  not  know  how  just  it  was,  but  from 
what  I  know  of  Christians  in  America  I 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  145 


am  prepared  to  believe  tliat  it  was  not  un- 
fair to  new-born  Christians  in  the  East. 
It  is  our  defect  that  we  hick  so  much  the 
sense  of  having  the  best  thing  in  the 
workl,  and  the  best  thing  in  any  world,  in 
our  Christian  faith.  We  say  that  we  have 
it,  and  hold  it  as  our  theory,  but  we  do 
not  feel  it  with  a  constraining  gladness 
and  an  enthusiastic  zeal.  The  coming  of 
such  a  sense  of  our  heavenly  gift  is  need- 
ful if  we  are  to  have  the  power  that  ^ve 
desire. 

We  often  say  that  our  time  is  not  favor- 
able to  enthusiasm  in  spiritual  things;  and 
it  is  largely  true.  We  are  in  a  day  of 
scientific  thought,  and  of  critical  activity. 
It  is  a  great  period  of  transition,  in  which 
all  that  can  be  removed  is  being  shaken, 
that  the  things  that  cannot  be  shaken  may 
remain.  Amid  so  many  questions  as  are 
abroad  in  our  time,  how,  it  is  asked,  can 
we  maintain  an  enthusiastic  confidence? 
Who  knows  what  we  shall  next  be  invited 
10 


146  THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER 

to  surrender,  or  at  least  to  modify  ?  How 
shall  we  keep  our  sense  of  the  reality  of 
the  things  that  our  religion  tells  us  of? 
and  how  shall  we  dare  invite  intelligent 
men  in  such  a  time  to  cast  in  their  lot 
with  our  religion?  Must  we  not  keep 
along  as  well  as  we  can  till  a  period  of 
firmer  confidence  dawns  upon  us,  hoping 
by  and  by  to  be  able  to  commend  our  faith 
more  strongly?  And  would  it  not  be  as 
well  for  our  friends  who  have  not  received 
Christianity  to  wait  until  that  better  day, 
before  accepting  it  as  true  and  vital  for 
themselves  ? 

To  this  I  answer,  that  I  am  profoundly 
convinced  that  our  generation  needs  just 
such  a  conception  of  Christianity  as  I  have 
endeavored  to  present  in  these  three  ad- 
dresses, and  such  an  experience  as  I  have 
declared  to  be  of  the  substance  of  our  reli- 
J  gion.      We  want  to  see  the  simplicity  of 

our  religion,  and  to  hold  as  essential  to  it 
only  what  really  is  essential.      We  often 


THE   CHRISTIAN  TOWER  1 47 

overburden  ourselves  for  the  Christian 
purpose.  We  undertake  to  hold  too  much. 
We  bind  our  theories  and  interpretations 
in  as  a  part  of  the  substance  of  Christian- 
ity. If  a  few  of  us  alone  could  do  this, 
the  way  might  look  easier,  at  least  to  us, 
but  the  trouble  is  that  others  who  dissent 
from  us  do  the  same,  and  Christianity  be- 
comes weighted  with  a  variety  of  con- 
flicting theories  as  to  the  meaning  of  its 
experimental  facts.  If  we  go  back  to  the 
beginnings,  we  find  a  declaration  of  eternal 
realities,  such  as  each  soul  of  man  needs 
to  know,  and  can  rest  in,  and  find  eternal 
life  by  knowing.  For  my  own  part,  I  am 
content  with  calling  my  fellow-men  to 
accept  and  live  by  these  realities.  This 
I  can  do,  and  this  I  do,  with  the  utmost 
confidence.  I  believe  that  the  God  and 
Father  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  liv- 
ing God,  the  only  God  that  there  is,  and 
that  led  by  Jesus  Christ  we  may  all  come 
home  to  him  where  w^e  belong,  and  live  our 


148    ■         THE    CHRISTIAN  POWER 

normal  life  by  being  Christians.     To  the 
life  of  love  in  God  I  believe  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  iDower  is  leading  us.     This  I  be- 
lieve to  be  the  right  way  for  high  and  low, 
for  ignorant  and  learned.     This  I  would 
as  soon  declare  in  a  great  university  as  in 
the  lowliest  country  meeting-house.     This 
message   I   do   not  have   to   defend  as  I 
should  be  obliged  to  defend  an  elaborate 
scheme   of   thought.     I   will    discuss   the 
scheme  of  thought  that  is  involved  in  the 
message,  when  and  where  it  is  necessary, 
but  the  Christianity  that  I  preach  I  preach 
because  it  is  true  to  the  eternal  realities, 
and  is  fit  to  be  received  at  once    by  any 
soul  that  desires  to  live  in  accordance  with 
the  things  that  are.     I  am  not  claiming  for 
myself  a  power  that  corresponds  to  this 
secret  of  power  that  I  believe  in.     But  I 
am  anxious  that  the  Christian  people  should 
learn  that  their  Christian  doctrine  consists 
in  the  truth  that  they  possess  in  the  com- 
mon Christian  experience,  and  know  that 


THE   CHRISTIAN  POWER  1 49 


its  power  dwells  in  its  realitj^,  and  in  their 
sense  of  its  reality.  To  what  should  we 
look  for  power  if  not  to  this,  that  the 
Christian  people  know  what  they  possess, 
and  offer  it  for  what  it  is,  an  experimental 
possession  of  the  eternal  verities?  The 
way  of  simplicity  and  confidence  is  the 
way  of  power. 

I  am  thankful  for  the  opportunity  to 
speak  these  words  in  this  presence.  May 
the  power  of  the  Christian  truth  rest  upon 
us  all. 


AN    OUTLINE 

of 


Christian    Theology. 

BY 

WILLIAM    NEWTON    CLARKE,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Theology  at   Colgate 
University,    Hamilton,  New  York. 


Crown  8vo     .      .      .      $2.50  net. 


THIS  is  the  simplest,  clearest,  most  radical,  and  most 
spiritual  theological  treatise  we  have  ever  seen. 
It  is,  indeed,  in  these  four  characteristics  rather  a 
treatise  on  religion  than  on  theology.  It  is  vital,  not 
scholastic ;  a  minister  to  largeness  of  life,  through  clear- 
ness of  thought.  ...  To  ministers  holding  in  whole  or 
in  part  the  new  philosophy,  we  recommend  this  vol- 
ume, as  showing  them  how  to  use  that  philosophy  to 
conserve,  nourish,  and  strengthen  the  old  faith.— 77/^ 
Outlook. 

We  have  read  it  with  great  interest.  Its  author, 
though  so  modest  as  not  to  prefix  the  word  "  Professor" 
to  his  name,  at  once  commands  our  respect.  He  is  a 
clear  thinker,  a  fine  scholar,  a  scientific  and  philosophi- 
cal theolotjian.     The  work  is  able,  it  is  stimulating,  it  is 


AN  OUTLINE   OF  CHRISTIAN    THEOLOGY. 

fresh,  and  reveals  him  in  touch  with  the  latest  thought 
of  the  day.  It  is  in  many  respects  an  epoch-making 
book.  .  .  .  We  commend  this  book  to  any  who  desire 
to  get  the  clearest  statement  of  the  new  theology  that 
can  be  found  in  English.  —  Presbyterian  and  Reformed 
Reviezv. 

Professor  Marcus  Dods  writes  :  — 

"  Has  it  ever  happened  to  any  of  our  readers  to  take 
up  a  work  on  systematic  theology,  with  the  familiar 
divisions, '  God/  *  Man,' '  Sin,'  Christ,' '  The  Holy  Spirit,' 
'  The  Church,'  '  The  Last  Things,'  and  open  it  with  a 
sigh  of  weariness  and  dread,  and  find  himself  fascinated 
and  enthralled,  and  compelled  to  read  on  to  the  last 
word?  Let  any  one  who  craves  a  new  experience  of 
this  kind,  procure  Dr.  Clarke's  '  Outline.'  We  guarantee 
that  he  will  learn  more,  with  greater  pleasure,  than  he 
is  likely  to  learn  in  any  other  systematic  theology." 

We  have  received  from  America  many  useful  con- 
tributions to  theological  literature,  but  few  that  sur- 
pass this  either  as  theology  or  as  literature.  —  British 
Wecidy. 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

Publishers, 

153-157  Fifth  Avenue     .       .      NEW    YORK. 


Date  Due 


